Imitatio
by IWEYC
Summary: The Arc family. One of famous heroes, deeming themselves worthy of having the title of a 'knight'. Everyone knew who they were, and knew their favored weapon - Crocea Mors. Being in the spotlight so long, this sword and shield overshadowed something the Arc's had tried to hide. A different weapon...one that no one had ever seen before...one that a certain Jaune Arc stumbled upon.
1. Chapter 1

_**I DON't OWN RWBY**_

* * *

Weapons.

They could be defined as merely tools for battle - replaceable pieces of metal.

Others could define them as achievments of past exploits. Be it the sword of a famous hero, the gun of a vigilante, or even the staff of a defeated villain. Weapons commonly used as reminders of our pasts, horrific or not.

One last definitive way of describing weapons, however, honestly trumps the former two.

Weapons can be further extents of _us_. It could be the very description of your soul - aside from your semblance, of course. You could share some sort of bond between you and your weapon.

You could look at it as something could be another version of _you._

A sword and shield - commonly associated with fabled knights - can be used to symbolize the desire to protect those around you. Showing the act of putting your needs second, and everyone else's first.

So it would make sense that 17-year old Jaune Arc would try his hand at the weapons used by his ancestors. To show he could be the knight he always wanted to be...the _hero_ he always wanted to be.

Alas, things don't always turn out the way we plan. In this case, Jaune was unable to move how he wanted with the extra _weight_ of the shield hindering him. He wanted to be able to _maneuver_ , not to stand there and willingly take hits.

To top it all off, the sword - Crocea Mors - couldn't even use _dust_.

It made sense, though. Back when the sword was first forged, during those times, dust hadn't been used in such intricate ways - the furthest they'd gotten was using dust crystals to blow things to kingdom come.

It made sense...but that didn't mean he had to _like_ it.

Many people used dust as a show of being flashy, or in other cases, making them look more dominant. Jaune however, wanted to use dust to make up for his lack of skill. With a regular sword and shield, he would probably only be able to block, shield bash, and slash at enemies halfheartedly.

If he had dust at his disposal, though, he would be able to sever anything that stood in his way with bursts of energy created by created by said item.

Despite having little to no training and teaching about the many oddities of Remnant, he knew a lot about dust, very much so to the point that, with teaching, would be able to _teach_ a class about the subject.

He could stand here for hours and talk about the many applications of dust, but decided to go for the shorter summary on the topic.

Many years ago, the war between grimm and man had taken a turn for the worst, all of mankind slowly losing hope after every fallen person they layed eyes on.

In their time of need, a being more powerful than anything they've seen before, heeded their requests. Thus came to the creation of what we call...dust.

A powerful substance still researched on to this day, something that has many properties we can't even begin to understand.

Three forms of dust are commonly used throughout the entirety of Remnant - crystallized, powder, and liquid.

Dust crystals could be used to create projectiles of their respective elements, used in the making of armor/weapons, or even used in the weapon itself.

Powedered dust could be used to create fabric infused with dust, effectively making clothes with dust properties available.

Liquid dust is essentially used in the research of all things even remotely related to dust.

All these forms of dust, and not one of them was at Jaune's disposal. His family had wanted to keep it 'nice and simple'. In Jaune's mind, nice and simple - usually - didn't go together.

Upon eventually giving up training with Crocea Mors entiretly, he had stumbled upon something in his room.

A great-sword...right under the floorboards of his room.

"Woah~" he murmered to himself in amazement, slowly examining over the weapon he had stumbled upon while looking around in his room.

The sword was long, 36 inches to be exact. Expertly crafted by using fire dust crystals, the blade of the sword was emanating a faint orange glow - side effects of infusion with dust.

The hilt was a fine, shadowy black piece of leather, and on that was a single word engraved within.

 _Imitatio_

Not fluent with anything even a little bit related to a Latin word, he at the time had no idea what this word exactly meant, but he decided to go with it - it sounded cool.

The word itself, though, having a multitude of definitions...and they weren't pretty.

It meant being a fraud.

A lier.

A fake.

He had always wanted to become a hunter throughout his lifetime, so much so that he would get into the famous training school for soon-to-be hunters/huntresses in training through dishonest means.

His heart was in the right place, sure. But to anyone else who found out about this, they would look upon him with disgust, for taking away someones chance for a spot to be where people they aspired to be trained. He has to remember by doing this, he replaced one student with his own presence, making him feel bad at just the though of it.

How he was able to cheat his way into Beacon?

With forged transcripts, of course.

He had been able to contact someone with extensive knowledge of the criminal underworld - how he did it was a question for us all - to set up a meeting with a guy who went by the name 'Junior'.

He was to meet up with this guy at a club he owned, pay him the amount of lien, and get forked over the best forged transcripts the world could find, in good time at least.

He looked over to the torn floorboard and picked up the leather sheath that was supposed to accompany it, he was hesitant to even bring this sword around, who wouldn't be?

He had _just_ found this sword in his room _under the floorboards_.

Of course he would be hesitant. It felt wrong to use something that wasn't even his to begin with. To bring around a weapon he wasn't premitted to bring by his parents.

On that topic, why hadn't his parents talked to him about this weapon? Were they trying to hide it from him? Or did someone else entirely do this?

Highly unlikely, seeing as there was no logical standpoint of doing all that.

He breathed out a heavy sigh, slinging the leather sheath over his shoulders to a somewhat comfortable position. He gripped the sword by the hilt a little tighter then before, his eyes swirling with emotions. The most prominent being...

Self-loathing.

He hated himself for stealing something that wasn't his. He hated himself for being too weak to meet up to his parents expectations. He hated himself for going through with faking his way into Beacon.

Although, stealing this sword wouldn't change people's views on him.

He was already too far down to begin with.

* * *

He walked the streets of Vale, absently looking around at the wonders that made this place great for sightseeing - even if he had seen them many times before, it was still cool to look at.

As he grew closer and closer to his destination, everyone around him was noticeably more...ah... _disheveled._ Everywhere around him, the aroma of the bustling city of Vale had turned into the smell of smoke and drugs, it disgusted him.

He was met with stares of some of the people, looking far too young and innocent to even step within a good radius of a place like this, but to Jaune's relief, didn't make any moves to sell him things like Bricks or X - if that even was a thing, Jaune didn't have an exstensive knowledge on the terms the slums used for the drugs they sold.

He could pick up the faint ring of clun music, not too far off in the distance.

Though in hindsight, it was actually further away then what Jaune had percieved - club music was just too dang loud.

 **BOOOOOOOM!**

An explosion sounded in the distance, causing everyone around him to go into a panicking frenzy and run the opposite direction. Jaune grit his teeth as he came to a descision, unsheathing his sword and holding it with both hands, he ran towards where the sounds originated.

He realized the club music had stopped.

'Did the explosion come from there?' he asked himself, knowing fully well he wouldn't get an answer.

He felt his finger itch on the hilt towards a piece of metal sticking out from the bottom, he slowed his pace to examine just what it was. Flipping his sword into a reverse grip, his thumb carefully trailed over the offending item. He accidentally swiped his thumb to the left, which opened the bottom of the hilt and revealed something.

Dust crystals.

He quickly closed it, a huge grin spread out on his face as he returned to his normal running speed towards where he could get his transcripts.

 **BAAAANG!**

Another explosion sounded out, louder then the first. Jaune saw a guy in a black jacket, wearing a red tie, and sunglasses get launched out the window.

His grin faded and let his eyes widen. The person doing this must've been good, horridly so. Having second doubts, he slowly started to back away, at least, until a thought came to mind.

'Maybe if I help him I can get my transcripts for free.'

He _knew_ he would probably get his ass kicked, more then that, if he wasn't careful enough, he could ultimately get killed.

He very much enjoyed living, but decided to go with the route that held the most risk. Besides, he had a new and awesome sword! Made of dust crystals! To top that all off, more dust crystals were stored in the hilt!

So, he was feeling a bit cocky - which, in itself, was a rare occasion given his normal, dorky and nerdy attitude.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes in tranquillity for all but a second, before rushing in through the big doors, sidestepping another goon from hitting and knocking him down.

'Is it just me? Or did this place get hotter?' he mused.

"Hello there~" a teasing voice said from the smoke that encompassed the middle of the dance floor.

Jaune raised an eyebrow, surprised at how easy he was taking this. Before he knew it, words that he didn't try to speak came out of his mouth ,"Uhm...hello?"

He heard a smirk, and raised his sword up in a block just in time to defend a shotgun powered punch from hitting him in the chest. Now out of the smoke, the cause for all this commotion was...actually quite a beautiful blonde, with those _nice big_...STOP THAT! Stupid teenage hormones...

The girl flipped back and got into a boxing stance, never losing that teasing smirk on her face, "Oh look, a fellow blonde~ What are you doing here~?" she winked for good measure, using the art or seducing to try and pry information off of him.

To her disappointment though, he just let out a grunt.

'Wait...why can't I speak?'

He willed his body to stay still, but said thing did otherwise, running towards the girl in an offensive stance. The tip grazing the ground with a metallic 'shrrrrrnk'.

The girl cocked her fists back, reloading her weapon of choice - shotgun gauntlets - and proceeded to fire two, fire dust projectiles straight at Jaune.

Jaune's body - as if it had a mind of it's own - willed power into his newly acquired sword, closing his eyes in concentration, running forward all the while.

His eyes opened abruptly, a fierce gaze etched upon his features. He let out a roar.

 **"EXPLOSION!"**

The sword within his grasp quickly shifted in a burst of harsh, orange light, changing to a longer sword and hilt. The whole sword now having turned orange, he swung at the two projectiles aimed for him, which caused a blazing fury of fire to erupt.

 **BOOOOM!**

Flames engulfed what used to be the club, the ringing in his ears slowly dying down as he got back into a ready stance, his sword shifting back into it's normal state.

'What the heck was that!? How did it change shape!? How did it even make an explosion that big!? Even better, how am I doing this!? What even is-'

His thoughts were cut of as he heard an ear piercing shout, seeing more flames erupt around the girl - not too different from what Jaune had done before.

The girl charged forward with newfound speed, her fists cocked back, eyes red. He took a deep breath and rushed in to meet her halfway. He let out a shout of his own.

 **"SYLPHARION!"**

His sword glowed a bright, blue light, shifting itself into a different sword, blue energy emanating off of it. The sword now shrunk down a few inches, it led to a faster approach on Jaune's end, his steps became more agile.

The sword held at his side, he let out a battle cry and lashed out at her with a speed no one could even begin to comprehend, effectively sending her to the nearest wall.

"It's over..." he mumbled to himself, his sword shifting back to it's normal state. Shaking slight from exertion, his breaths became more shallow.

He felt control come back into his body, allowing himself to twist his wrists and jump in tiny hops. A groan sounded out from the smoke, causing him to take on a slightly less professional stance then before.

"Your pretty good." The girl he had just fought admitted with a chuckle, getting out of the debris and dusting herself off.

"Nice fight!" The girl offered cheerfully, upon hearing no response, though, raised an eyebrow.

Jaune felt his eyes start to become more blurry, his hearing becoming distorted. He tried to take one step, but fell over.

"Woah, I got you." Were the last words the young Arc heard before losing his consciousness.

* * *

 **AN: Hello and welcome, to the horridly rushed first chapter of Imitatio.**

 **This had been an idea that just didn't want to leave my head, so I decided to try and write it - which proved to be a harder task then I thought. To get the plot going in the first chapter, ultimately deciding how the story was going to to, and even just writing it in general.**

 **Pairings. I'm not so good at doing anything even remotely related to a relationship, so no promises on how that may turn up. It may be a poll, or maybe I'll just decide with the flip of a coin...who knows?**

 **The weapon. If any of you didn't notice - or don't know what this is - I got the sword idea and attack names from an anime called Rave Master - It might be something else, but I found this out by watching the OVA of Fairy tail X Rave Master, so...yea. He can call out any attack of his choice, which effectivley makes the sword shift to the desired attack.**

 **For example...'EXPLOSION' lets his sword change into an all orange, slightly longer sword. When it makes contact with something, it creates an explosion, hence the name.**

 **'SYLPHARION' makes the sword into a shorter, blue sword. Which causes his speed to increase immensely.**

 **There are more, some from the show, and some I just make up on my own.**

 **Jaune's mindset was pretty messed up on my part - it was basically plain stupid. I wanted to get this chapter out as soon as I could, though. So that also meant doing it a little late at night...10:00 to be exact.**

 **So what did you think? Was it too short? Just right? Or maybe just plain horrible?**

 **Don't forget to leave a review! Even if you love it or you hate it!**

 **Cya!**


	2. Chapter 2

Yang looked over the unconcious form of the blonde boy and sighed...she didn't know why she let him sleep on her couch - heck, she didn't even know why she brought him in her house in the first place.

She felt bad for putting him in this state - sure it wasn't because she physically hurt him, but she, technically, forced him to use up all of his energy whilst fighting her. So it was only fair that she watch over him for the time being.

Her father was asleep, as was Ruby...which was why she even went to the club in the first place, to avoid suspicion. Originally, she went with the intent to find information out peacefully...but she was denied said information.

She - being the girl with an uncontrollable temper she was - decided getting information would be easier by force.

But alas, that only worsened things...she didn't get what she wanted and put a boy that had just arrived in an unconcious state.

Yep, things were just going oh so well.

Her thoughts drifted back towards the boy she had tasked herself to watch, questions just now forming within her head.

First and foremost, why he was even going to that club. He seemed like a very capable and innocent man. Like Ruby...in the way that she could be a master with her weapons and be an adorable, sweet, and innocent girl.

She smiled fondly at the thought of her younger sister. She would love to see the weapon that he used.

Speaking of his weapon…

She walked over to where she had layed his weapon - at the corner of her room. The greatsword gleaming in the silky moonlight. She warily eyed it up and down, just a little while ago seeing how capable the sword really was.

What had he said? Sylphrhino? Slypherneon?

She shook her head, that wasn't too important as of now.

She let her finger trail down the hilt, letting herself lift the sword up and twist it with her wrists. Spinning the hilt around, she came across the words inscribed in it.

Imitatio.

A small smile found it's way to her face...that name sounded pretty good, if she did say so herself.

Of course, it would never be as good as Ember Celica - that was just a given in her eyes.

She looked and examined the blade, duly noting that it was made of purely fire-dust crystals. She went back to remembering the fight, slowly recalling that the sword had been able to switch forms when he said the right words.

Now that was just all kinds of awesome.

She didn't want to say the words she could remember - seeing as when the boy had said it, it exploded...just as the trigger entailed.

Lifting the sword up, Yang noticed a slight rattling sound coming back from the bottom of the hilt. With a quirked eyebrow, she flipped the sword gracefully in a reverse grip, eyeing the rock bottom of the sword.

She used her index finger the twist it, revealing fire dust crystals within the hilt - like the blade being made of said item wasn't enough.

This sword was packed - and even saying that wouldn't be enough to bring it justice.

If you compared it to, say, Crescent Rose - Ruby's weapon of choice...or in her words, 'her baby' - it probably could be counted as two Crescent Roses.

Yeah...it was that much.

Back to their fight, however, those two forms he unleashed didn't seem...complete. Like there were more then just the ones he used, and that made her a bit scared, like-

A shuffling noise.

She turned around and saw the boy shift uncomfortably, a tight frown on his features. His eyes starting to flutter open.

An amused grin found it's way onto her face, her eyes teeming with mirth.

"Finally waking up, sleeping beauty?"

~Imitatio~

Let it be known from the young Arc himself...coming back into consciousness after just getting knocked out, isn't the most pleasant feeling. He felt aching around all parts of his body - the side effects of over exerting one's aura reserves.

He didn't know what overtook him during his fight with the blonde girl, but he could infer that the attacks he used drained his aura. So much so to the point where he drained all of the aura he contained, which in turn, made him lose consciousness.

He knew he had large aura reserves, his parents had told him themselves that he possesed more then the average amount of aura. The two attacks, then, must have took a ton of aura to even charge up - if it even need to charge to begin with.

But after fighting/watching the battle, he could observe that right when he said the words, the sword automatically switched forms - which would be handy for future events.

That, however, is only if he would be able to learn how to use the sword to it's fullest extent - or the fact that there were probably more then just the two attacks he used.

"Finally waking up, sleeping beauty?"

If he wasn't awake before, he surely was awake now.

Yelping in a way no man would ever attempt to do, he instinctively reached for his back where the hilt of his new sword was supposed to be...only for his hand to grasp empty air.

He was about to say something, but got stopped by the girl putting a finger to his lips, not hers, his. He blushed a deep shade of red, but otherwise remained quiet - he knew fully well what this girl was capable of, the only reason he was able to 'beat' her was because he had the element of surprise.

Without that - plus his sword - at his disposal, he had no chance at beating this girl.

Which is also the reason why he didn't say anything about him not being able to get faked transcripts. One, if he got mad at her right here, she would most likely beat him to a pulp...in 5 seconds flat.

The second reason being his lack of wanting to tell a stranger at he was going to fake his way into Beacon, that in itself was a crime - even if her just being at the club and beating people up randomly was also illegal, fear made people do wierd things.

"You must be wondering why you're here." The girl started.

He internally chuckled. Yeah, that and probably thousands of other questions he should be able to ask, but he knew the consequences of talking back to her.

In a way, it was like talking back to a parent, it was - or at least assumed - he was in her house. The girl - not looking more then 18 - probably had parents in the room next to her. While he didn't have this skillful mindset back at the club, he certainly had it now - maybe it was another one of the side effects from using the sword…?

"I guess you could say that," he admitted, but upon quickly realizing something, "W-wait, not that I'm not grateful or anything. Because I'm-"

His ramblings were stopped by a hand gesture, courtesy of the blonde brawler, as she sighed and shook her head.

"It's okay, geez, you act just like my sister." She added the last statement as an afterthought."Name's Yang, Yang Xiàolong. First things first, you're in my house," that caused a slight blush on Jaune's side of things, "My parents are still asleep, so I'm going to need you to be very quiet. Clear?" She cracked her knuckles menacingly, showing that she was most certainly capable of beating him, like he went over before.

He took a gulp before nodding ever so slightly - a bit of sweat unnoticeablely trailing down the back of his neck.

Yang took one look at this and started chuckling, "Ya know, for someone so that beat me before, you're kind of a coward…" She trailed off.

He sighed, she certainly wasn't wrong - she just wasn't right either. Wrong, in the sense that he was able to beat her - while he did in fact beat her, it was, like he said, through pure luck and the element of surprise.

She was right, in the sense that indeed a coward - it may seem like low self pity at best, but he just liked stating facts, and even then it still sounded like he was purposely lowering his self esteem.

"Haaaa," he sighed, "You don't know the half of it."

Yang raised an eyebrow at that, "Well, care to enlighten me?"

Did he care to enlighten her? There weren't really many options that he could choose here - most of them ended up with him getting beaten to a pulp. Besides, Yang seemed like a genuinely nice girl - well, unless you did anything to spite her. The only option left…

"Do you want the long version? Or the short one?"

~Imitatio~

Yang was sitting down, her legs crossed and a hand to her chin - deep in thought about what the boy before her had just said.

She knew that this was a crime - so was breaking into a club, but that's besides the point - yet, his intentions were so...pure. It was near impossible to be mad at something like that.

A boy, one who just wanted to help the people around him, like his parents - the Arcs - did, like heroes did.

That wasn't why she was so surprised, however. What got to her, was that his family had practically ignored him entirely - while he never thought much about why he was moved in the attic, he originally had thought it to be from lack of space, 7 sisters was a lot to come by.

After extensive thinking, though, this version made much more sense.

The Arcs were getting ready to disown him.

Why else would all this happen? Refused to get trained by his mother or father, their too nice attitudes, moving into the attic, getting blocked off from his sisters, it all became more clear.

Despite all this, he still held a nice and dorky personality - like nothing had ever changed.

That took guts - something Yang Xiáolong looked up to in some people.

You couldn't blame him for trying to go through with this, it wasn't right.

She heard a sigh and turned her gaze up to meet his - but after a second he looked down. Letting his legs dangle from the bed, he stood up, stretching his limbs with audible pops. He headed towards his sword and picked it up before heading towards the door.

"Well, I guess I'll take my leave...thanks for letting me stay here and everything, but I have to go." He stated, a hint of sadness embedded.

She had made her descision.

"Wait." she called out.

He turned back to meet her eyes, lilac and blue, one blonde with an eyebrow raised, another with a true smile. No hint of teasing in it, but just a genuine smile that held happiness - and to a further extent, it was content.

"I'm taking you to Beacon with me...and there's nothing you can do to change that."

~Imitatio~

AN:Well, that was a thing.

Some of you may be mad at how I made Jaune have a cool head while talking to Yang, but let me explain something. He's in bed, injured, without his weapon, how could he possibly get mad at Yang without getting beat up? He may have jumped head first in the club, but that was because he didn't know what he was dealing with, while now, he did.

As for the part about his parents, I left some hints in the first chapter. When he had said something about seeing the sights of Vale many times before, it could mean he went with his family - but what I meant, was that he went here by himself because hi parents never wanted to interact with him, which got him bored.

This chapter was mostly just to get a friendship going, you know, for later stuff. Yang X Jaune isn't confirmed yet, but it's looking that way for me. The chapters WILL be longer, don't worry.

On another note, 65 follows and 50 favorites?! On the FIRST CHAPTER?! That's...that's amazing, I didn't expect THAT much to come out from this story, I just wanted to make what seemed cool in my head.

Reviews:

Karlos1234ify: Thank you! And Yang might have…oh alright she did.

ArmantusCumPinnae: Thanks! Don't worry, they'll be longer.

Voltrasin: Glad to see you enjoy it! Thanks!

justjustin3099: I like that idea too, I haven't read many fics like that. Thanks!

Jaune Black Smudge: I see where you're going with that, but you have to remember, Yang is taking Jaune to HER home, where he's injured and without a weapon, so he can't really do anything but listen. Thanks!

I can't do all the reviews...too many words in the AN. Sorry!


	3. Chapter 3

I DON'T OWN RWBY!

* * *

The sound of metal resounded throughout the grassy fields - two swords colliding.

Of all the things to expect, Jaune didn't expect to be fighting one-on-one against a drunk, old man wielding a greatsword.

But he had learned - in the time span of 7 days - that the things he didn't predict could very well happen.

Not necessarily bad things, just some things that he would have never imagined himself doing. Such as being able to survive against a fully fledged huntsman - one that could beat Yang in under a minute.

The thought of that scared him.

Though - if he had to take a guess - it was probably because his weapon could be considered on par if not better then his opponents. He learned that his name was Qrow - a huntsman having graduated Beacon with a team of four. He was also Yang and Ruby's uncle.

Speaking of which…

Ruby was Yang's younger sister. A fifteen-year old, socially awkward girl - with a love for cookies and weapons. He thought of her as little red riding hood in a way - the cloak, her attitude, and just the way she displayed her presence.

Her scythe, though, told a different story.

Seriously! It was two times bigger then her, yet she was still able to kick butt with it!

Back to Qrow.

He was on a team named STRQ - or more formally pronounced as 'Stark'.

Yang and Ruby's father - Taiyang - had been a member of said team, as was their mother.

Mothers…

Yeah, it's complicated.

In a nutshell, Yang's birthmother - Raven - had Yang, then immediately left. No good reason or explanation as to why.

Then, Taiyang and Ruby's birthmother - Summer - had Ruby, but she, sadly, died during a mission she was tasked on.

He jumped up to avoid an incoming swing from Qrow, holding his sword out in front of him to block another strike, the force sending him back a few inches. He clumsily rolled to the side to avoid a slash that impacted the ground - cratering it as it did so.

So as to why he was fighting a dangerous, drunk old man. One that was the uncle of two girls that could very well beat him. One that just made a crater in the ground not too far away from where he stood.

Well, this was all part of his training.

Apparently.

Yang had introduced him to her parents not too long after he heard them wake up - well parent, if you didn't want to call Qrow one. He was forced to tell the whole truth about his intentions and actions, and was very surprised to see how well they took it.

They were teachers at a hunters school. Surely they'd call the police on him and get him arrested.

But despite all that, they were still willing to help him - when he told them about his family heritage, their demeanor shifted slightly.

Maybe that was why?

Okay, battle. What words was he supposed to say again?

Oh right.

 **"SYLPHARION!"**

His sword shifting to match the command, his speed rising to with the power Sylpharion surged within him.

It was exhilarating.

Every step he took it was like he disappeared only to reappear a second later.

Qrow's eyes didn't reveal any emotions, however. The only notion of his slightly on gaurd expression was the movement of his head - almost frantically looking left and right to keep up with his movements.

Jaune slashed at Qrow's side before dashing off in a hasty attempt to dodge any counters. Jaune swiftly jumped up with his sword held high - his face refusing to reveal any emotion.

Qrow saw him and jumped up to meet him, but his sword sliced through thin air.

Utilizing his speed, he was able to get behind Qrow and deliver a quick downwards slash at his back - proceeding to kick his legs onto Qrow's back to gain momentum and do a corkscrew backflip down towards the ground - it did nothing more but irritate him.

Mechanical whirring could be heard as Qrow fired out a bullet from the now extended barrels, the upper half of his sword tilted backwards to enable ranged attacks.

It hit him straight in the chest.

He was sent launching towards the grass below him, a painful grimace twisted onto his features. Plunging his sword into the ground, he slowly stood up, yanking it out and coming back into his defensive stance.

Qrow's shoes landed onto the ground as his sword shifted back, he dashed forward and let out a series of backspin slashes that Jaune was forced to deflect. He tilted the blade up during his blocks at exactly the right moment, causing Qrow's sword - Reaper - to recoil back rather oddly.

Seeing this exploit, he went in for what would most likely drain the last of his aura.

 **"EXPLOSION!"**

His sword shifted to it's vibrant orange, before he let out a backspin slash of his own, effectively causing the surroundings to erupt into flames. A grunt sounded out within the fire, before an arc of orange energy was sent hurtling his way, causing him to tumble backwards.

His sword shifted back into it's normal form, before he let it clatter to the ground.

He heard a low whistle of approval and turned to see Taiyang, an approving gaze set on his features, "A full 3 minutes, impressive." he praised.

Ruby decided she would be more... _vibrant_ in her complementing, "Yeah! Even if uncle Qrow kicked your butt!"

My my, how encouraging - you could write a motivational speech with that kind of talent.

Yang let out a low clap, "That wasn't bad," she started, "but that's still not enough to beat me!"

Jaune felt a slight blush creep onto his features, and embarrassingly, got called out by Qrow - who offered him a hand to help stand and ruffled his hair affectionately.

"Well hey, look on the bright side. At least you didn't trip over your shoes, brat." He ribbed, using the nickname that infuriated him to no end, but at the same time made him feel happy inside.

"Oh come on! That was one time! _One!"_ he punctuated his statement by raising one finger and waggling it in the air dramatically.

Yang's grin became feral, "It shouldn't have happened in the first place!" she called out. Giving Qrow a not-so-subtle wink, which he responded to a very poorly hidden thumbs up.

He rolled his eyes at their antics.

He really didn't like being reminded of that though, it was a painful experience.

It would've been even more so if Qrow's sword actually hit him while he was laying on the ground.

He shuddered at the thought of Qrow's greatsword slamming into the ground mere _inches_ way from his face - he had been frozen stiff.

An unsettling frown found it's way onto his features, picking up _Imitatio_ and giving it a once-over.

He had touched up on this before, but he _knew_ there were more forms then just these two - there had to be.

Who in their right mind would make a sword that could create explosion and give you super speed, but not add on other abilities as well?

Very unlikely.

Though, it probably had to do with the fact that the form of the sword shifted when he said the designated name. Don't get him wrong, the sword doesn't form through words alone - it also requires willpower and a certain amount of aura. Which is the reason why he's always low on aura after any attack he uses in _Imitatio's_ transformed state.

 _States_.

Nevermind...

"Thinking about your weapon?" It was Qrow who broke Jaune out of his reverie.

He gave a slight nod of his head while he sheathed _Imitatio_. "Kind of. Is it wierd for me to feel like there's _more_ to this sword then what I already know it can do?" he asked, a troubled expression across his face - partially from the fact that he couldn't figure it out himself, the other half because he wanted to know _how_ exactly it worked.

At the club, he had acted against his will - granting him the two forms of _Imitatio._ Which he was grateful for, of course, but it wasn't as... _fufilling_ as he thought it would be.

"Well," a contemplative look spread across Qrow's features, "it's not exactly a rare occurance - but it isn't a common one either. It should come to you in time."

Dear dust did he hope so.

If he was wanting to be a huntsman he would need all the resources he could get - his training here could make him pass for the average Beacon initiate, maybe even a little bit below.

So it would help _immensely_ if something like that could happen.

"Hey Jaune?" Ruby asked as he sat back down on one of the chairs.

He raised an eyebrow, signaling for Ruby to continue.

"Do you want to come to the dust shop with me?" Ruby queried.

Jaune mulled over what he could do for the rest of today - upon realizing he had absolutely _nothing,_ he obliged. Shrugging a shoulder and nodding.

Luckily, Jaune and Ruby were already in their normal attire, so they would be able to head straight out of the door.

"Wait, why are you bringing your weapons?" Yang asked them.

Jaune turned back, "Well, you can never be to careful, now can you?"

"What he said!" Ruby exclaimed.

Yang hesitated for a moment, before relenting, "I guess that makes sense."

Jaune and Ruby both waved their hands at the family, which they returned in kind.

"So...do you know the directions to 'Dusk Till Dawn'?" Ruby asked while shuffling her feet on the ground, an embarresed blush present on her cheeks.

Jaune groaned.

* * *

"No way Charizard would win against Blastoise, the creators just made Charizard lucky." Ruby ranted.

"You only say that because of their types. Ruby, types aren't the only things that matter." he replied.

"Still! Charizard is a big, strong, and scary dragon while Blastoise is just an overgrown turtle." Ruby said.

"Well," he paused for a moment, "Actually, when you put it like that, it makes more sense." he admitted.

Before he realized something, "Wait, weren't you just saying that Charizard wouldn't win against Blastoise?" he questioned.

Ruby looked to be deep in thought before she sighed, "Yeah, I was."

Jaune let out a light chuckle at that.

Both Ruby and Jaune were looking through the magazines the dust shop had in stock - Ruby showing Jaune all of the reasons why she thought this pokemon would win against the other.

They heard the sound of a gun cocking.

"Do you hear that?" Jaune whispered to Ruby.

She gave a slight nod of her head, her hands slowly inching towards her sword - as was Jaune's.

"Hey, you two! Put your hands in the air!" a grunt commanded them, a sword pointing towards the pair.

"How about I raise my sword in your butt?!" Jaune retorted.

 **"SYLPHARION!"**

He dashed off to the side before dealing a series of quick slashes towards the offender, being careful not to do any serious blows, due to the thug's lack of aura. Another grunt came in with a gun that pulsed blue energy...

Until Ruby kicked him through the window, landing outside of the store and unfurling Crescent Rose.

Jaune jumped next to her, taking a ready stance with _Sylpharion_ raised.

"Well? Get them." they heard a voice command towards the group of criminals, which they obliged to.

Jaune and Ruby became a flurry of red and blue, making quick strikes towards the grunts before dealing powerful blows when the time was right. Ruby held out her hand while she was spinning with Crescent Rose locked into the ground, urging Jaune to grab it.

He did, and Ruby sent him launching into the last of the thugs. His body spinning in a wide circle, his sword striking the enemies.

Jaune landed back into place, next to Ruby, searching around for anymore grunts they could have missed.

"Well, as fun as it's been," a voice drawed in their attention - a man with orange hair, a bowler hat, a cane, and a cigar that he had just put out on the ground, "I do really need to get going."

The man pointed his cane towards the two of them and flipped up an aiming crosshair, revealing the barrel for Jaune and Ruby to stare into, "I'm afraid this is where we part ways."

He pulled the trigger, and it fired off a bright ball of purple energy - which Jaune and Ruby were forced to dodge. It exploded nearby on the street, causing smoke to lift into the air around them, a perfect smokescreen.

"Where did he go?" Jaune asked, shifting his sword back into it's normal state, frantically looking left and right.

Ruby scanned the surrounding buildings, "There!" she pointed towards a ladder leading up towards a rooftop, the man climbing atop of it.

They made a dash towards the roof, as the man ran towards the edge of the roof - only to be halted by the two teens, "Stop!" Jaune yelled.

"Tsk, persistent." he muttered to himself, looking down towards the ground below him - as if waiting for-

A bullhead came roaring out of the gap, steadying itself as close to the ledge as possible.

The man jumped on through the entrance and waved a red dust crystal in their direction, "End of the line!" he shouted, before throwing the crystal towards the ground and shoting at it.

"Ruby!" Jaune cried out, before tackling her to the ground, just barely dodging the explosion that followed.

Speaking of explosions...

 **"EXPLOSION!"**

His sword shifted to fit the command, and he slashed in a wide, straight arc aimed towards the bullhead, a wave of fire heading towards it.

It got stopped in mid air, though, when a girl in a firey red dress held her hand out, flicking her wrist to turn the wave the opposite before thursting her palm forward, launching Jaune's attack back at them.

He let out a curse as he was forced to move a stunned Ruby out of the way, which directed the explosion to him, sending him tumbling towards the opposite edge of the roof.

Ruby hesitated for a second, before transforming Crescent Rose and unloading her sniper rounds at the woman - although, the woman deflected them by holding her hand out forward, looking unfazed in the slightest.

The woman looked like she was going to unleash another attack, that's not good.

A voice whispered into his head.

"Dear dust I hope this works." he muttered dryly to himself.

 **"RUNESAVE!"**

His sword shifted into a new form - now fully green and more thin. He rushed forards in front of Ruby as she unleashed a torrent of fire.

On instinct, he slashed in a diagonal arc, and the sword sucked in the fire like a vacuum. The flames swirled around the sword a little before entering with a bright flash.

He grinned as he watched the woman take a step back in shot.

The odds were now in his favor.

 **"EXPLOSION!"**

His sword shifted into it's orange form, his arms brought to his side as he closed his eyes and concentrated.

 **"BAKUGEKI DANCE EXPLOSION!"**

He jumped forward, and let out a series of slashes towards the bullhead, which caused multiple explosions to surround it, launching it into the air.

He let out a sigh, he did it. He was able to beat...whoever those were.

The explosions sent him flying back onto the roof's floor, forcing him to backflip until he got his balance.

Ruby walked to stand next to him, a twinkle in her eyes.

"THAT! WAS! AWESOME!"

* * *

"So, you were able to beat those people, and gain a new form to your sword?" Qrow asked.

Jaune nodded enthusiastically, "Sure did!"

Ruby cut in, "You should've seen him! He was like. HIYA! WACHA!" she emphasized her words with adorable little karate chops.

Everyone had a laugh at that.

Until Yang's turned into a slight pout, "How come you got to have all the fun?"

"Because we're just that awesome." Jaune stated simply, highfiving Ruby as he did so.

"Yeah!" It seemed Ruby agreed on that front.

Yang was about to retort but stopped upon hearing the sound of a doorbell.

"I got it." Qrow assured.

He walked over and opened the door, revealing a man with silver hair, a green scarf, and a cane.

"Ozpin?" Qrow asked with surprise.

"Hello to you to Qrow." Ozpin greeted back, even with his stoic gaze, his eyes teeming with mirth.

Qrow recomposed himself, "Not to sound rude, but why are you here?" he questioned.

Ozpin simply looked at Qrow with an expressionless face.

"Yeah, nevermind." Qrow muttered.

He looked over to where Jaune and Ruby sat, "You two, come with me. We need to discuss something."

* * *

 **AN:That took slightly longer then I expected, even if the chapter was so god dang short.**

 **This chapter was to mostly show Jaune's relationship with not only Yang, but with her whole family as well - training with Qrow and all that.**

 **This chapter was also to introduce a new form 'Runesave', for any of you who don't know what it is, Runesave essentially can suck in magic, but can't cut through solid objects. Rendering it useless to anything but people who used magic. Now, people may be saying magic isn't a thing in Remnant, in this world, magic is just a term for how dust can be used. If you used dust in the way Yang did, it would be considered pyhsical. If you take Weiss's way of using dust, that would be what magic was. In Cinder's case, the fall maiden's powers were the reason Jaune was able to suck it all in.**

 **On another note, 110 follows, 82 favs, and 30 reviews! WTF! Apparently you guys like this story a lot. Thank you guys so much!**

 **There's a poll on my profile, basically it's asking if I should hiatus my other two ongoing stories to focus on this one and a new story that's also on my profile. You can go vote if you want.**

 **Due to the unexpected amount of reviews, I will only reply via PM, so sorry if that seems unfair to some people.**

 **Love it? Hate it? Leave a review!**

 **Cya!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I DON'T OWN RWBY!**

 **"The bad news is, time flies. The good news is, you're the pilot." -Michael Altshuler**

* * *

He banged his head against the metal wall for probably the umpteenth time in the last hour - this accursed piece of flying metal would be the end of him.

Not the grimm.

Not the sadistic SOBs out there.

Not all the trouble he seemed to find - or the trouble that seemed to find _him_.

Oh who was he kidding that probably would be to.

Ok, maybe bullheads weren't the _only_ things that could spell out his untimely demise - but it was most definitely in the top 10.

Because he kept count.

He felt bile threaten to erupt from his mouth, but forced it down due to the fact that he didn't have a 'barf bag' with him - and the fact that it would be embarrassing as hell.

Ruby pat the despairing boy's back pityingly - with a hint of amusement, and to a much lesser extent, disgust.

No, disgust was a harsh word.

 _Grossiness_

'Not a word Ruby', she chatised.

Yang was more...open with her thoughts, however, "Hey, maybe after this we can call you vomit boy."

Ruby had to hold herself back from snickering, Jaune let out a tiny groan that was supposedly supposed - say that 5 times fast - to be a retort.

The trio was recieving odd looks from the Beacon hopefuls around them - though mainly, the pairs of eyes were focused on Jaune. Some people slowly inched away in fear of having lunch spilled all over them.

The only reasons Yang and Ruby hadn't followed suit were because one, he was their friend, and two, Ruby was just too nice to see someone suffer like that - even if that somebody she had come to comfort wasn't her friend.

Though, she did pick up on one of Jaune's favorite sayings.

"Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet..."

That kind of debunks the whole 'don't talk to strangers' deal, but it's still inspiring - in a childish sense, at least.

Jaune's thoughts came back to his sword - or to be more specific, his newest form in particular.

 _Runesave._

That's what it had been called.

He had only theories as to what it could actually do, though, his fight with that 'fire woman' helped prove that is sword - somehow - was able to suck in any form of magic and use it to his benefit.

Say, if he didn't use _Runesave,_ he wouldn't have been able to use the add on to _Explosion._

 _Bakugeki Dance Explosion._

That had essentially been able to create multiple explosions at once, something _Explosion_ was incapable of doing. Or, at least, not to the best of his knowledge.

Though, he had a nagging suspicion that it couldn't.

His stomach let out a low, inaudible rumble that caused him to sigh, he really hated motion sickness on days like these. He'd do _anything_ to get-alright, maybe not anything, but he'd go so far as to walk to his destination.

That or knock himself unconcious on the plane.

He didn't have the slightest idea why he hadn't already done so.

It was too late though - just a few minutes and they'd be landing at Beacon Academy.

He heard a digital noise and a woman started speaking, "Hello and welcome to Beacon."

"Who's that?" Yang whispered to Ruby and Jaune.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch." the hologram continued.

"Oh."

Jaune would have let out a chuckle if he wasn't trying oh so hard to not spill his lunch on the floor...or someone's shoes, seriously, who would do that?

Jaune tuned out the rest of what Glynda had to say, something about being a privelaged few to enter this academy yada yada yada. It wasn't that he didn't care for all that stuff, he was honored to even be accepted into Beacon, but he had heard that Ozpin was going to make an _actual_ speech - that preferably, wasn't recorded.

The bullhead let out a low whir and started to descend towards the ground in front of Beacon, the door opening slowly for students to pass through.

The minute the door was big enough for someone to fit through, Jaune all but jumped through the gap and fell face first into the ground.

"Oh sweet ground, I shall never leave you again..." he murmured.

Yang and Ruby snickered as they walked next to his laying form.

"Y'know, I bet you're going to have to leave the ground _sometime_." Yang teased.

"Shut up and let me have this." he grumbled.

He gratefully took Ruby's hand to pull himself up, while doing so looking around at his surroundings.

So _this_ is what Beacon Academy looked like - he couldn't lie, it was actually just how Taiyang and Qrow had described it. Though, they hadn't even been inside the building, so he couldn't be the judge of that just yet.

"OOOOOO! This person has a laser-powered rifle!," Ruby exclaimed, "Oh! Oh! This person has a giant dust shuriken!," 'chibi mode Ruby' had finally appeared as another person walked by, "OH MI GOSH! That guy has gaunlets that turn into blades!"

Yang clicked her tounge in approval at the last one, "Gauntlets eh?"

Jaune laughed, "What, your weapon not good enough to swoon over?"

Ruby looked offended at such a statement, and deployed Crescent Rose, "Crescent Rose is the best! I just really like seeing new ones. It's like meeting people...but better..."

Jaune took this with mock offence, "Oh, I get it. So when you met me it wasn't as good as you getting to look at a new weapon for one second? I'm hurt." he put his hand to his heart and started to clutch it tightly.

Ruby's eyes widened and she frantically waved her hands in the air, "No! That's not- I mean- What I meant to say was-" upon seeing Jaune's laughing face, she stopped her ramblings, "Jerk."

Yang was clutching her sides, laughing like there was no tommorow, while Ruby had a slight blush of embarrassment.

"Aw, cheer up Rubes, I bet you'll see a ton of weapons here." Yang assured, to which Ruby let out a small smile.

"Don't we have an opening ceremony to go to?" he asked them.

They paused for a moment, before Ruby used her semblance to dash off towards the entrance od Beacon.

But in doing so, she bumped into a certain heiress's luggage.

The cases flew up into the air as Ruby tumbled on the ground, a dizzying expression on her face.

"Ugh, I can't believe this!" a haughty voice growled.

"Wait wha-" Ruby asked confused.

"You!" she pointed at the young Rose, "Do you have any idea how much this dust would cost!?"

Ruby for her part seemed to only half listen, "Uhm...no?"

"Oh god." Jaune groaned as he stared on at the White girl berating Ruby for such 'childish endeavors', which, to be frank, were just her thing. If you knew her you couldn't honestly blame her.

The girl went on about dust and the Schnee family that no one really cared to listen to, though they didn't say their thoughts out loud - that would be rude.

In her shouts, the girl had been shaking a hybrid of all dust types in a bottle, which was going to cause Ruby to sneeze.

Yep, an explosion was about to happen via a sneeze.

"Are you gonna.." he trailed off and looked at Yang, but she was desperately trying to hold in her laughter, "You know what, I'll do it."

 **"RUNESAVE!"**

His sword shifted as he rushed off towards both of the girls, and just when Ruby was about to sneeze, got in between them and absorbed the dust through his blade.

He sighed, before shifting his sword and putting it back into the hilt.

"Okay, we're deeply sorry for what she did. But can you please just let it go, just this once?" he asked pleadingly.

Weiss looked from Jaune to Ruby, still in shock from what he boy had did, before gaining a slight pink on her cheeks, "Oh, I guess I can. Your name is?" she asked politely.

Yang watched all this with a scowl on her face, the little heiress was trying to warm up to _her_ Jau-wait, where did that come from? She just wanted to get the possesive, bratty girl away from Jaune for his own good...right?

"Oh, well, my name's Jaune. Short, sweet, rolls of the tounge, I would say ladies love it but this probably wouldn't be the right time." he greeted.

"Well, Jaune, it was a pleasure meeting you, but I must be going." Weiss said.

"Likewise." he replied grinning.

With her piece said, Weiss began to walk off with her dust in hand, while Yang caught up with the young Rose and the blonde Arc, "So...that was a thing."

Jaune snorted, "That was more then a thing, Yang."

Ruby tugged at the sleeve of his hoodie, "Thanks for, you know, stopping me from embarrassing myself."

His eyes glinted with amusement, "Not a problem Rubes - though, if I didn't interfere, you would've been called Crater Face."

Ruby glared adorably at the boy, "Hey! It would've been an accident, Vomit Boy!"

Jaune scoffed, "Like having motion sickness isn't an accident either - besides, I didn't even vomit. I'll have you know, motion sickness is a much more common problem then people let on."

He started walking, motioning for the two to follow.

"Oh yeah? How many people do you know have motion sickness?" she snickered.

Jaune actually had to stop and think about that for a second, his thumb and index finger pinched his chin in contemplation, "Actually, all seven of my sisters had motion sickness, along with my mom and dad."

"Wait, seven sisters!?" the two siblings exclaimed, flabbergasted.

He chuckled, this reaction being fairly common whenever he shared this tidbit of information, "Yes, seven...and don't ask how I survived."

"Oh, we're here." Jaune stated as they stopped at the large double doors of Beacon. A crowd of students had gathered around the stage where Ozpin looked like he would start his speech.

"You come here in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and attain new skills. You look upon your peers and all you see is new competition, people that you can beat so you can put yourself at the top of some 'leaderboard'," his gaze shifted to a select few, namely a certain Cardin, "Some more then others. But when _I_ look upon you, I see wasted energy in need of a direction, and a few individuals who need guidance in said direction. We can't take the first step for you - but we can help you take any other steps during your time here at Beacon."

He walked off the stage, his cane clicking against the hard, wooden floor - only to be replaced by the sound of heels, "You will gather in the ballroom tonight, tommorow, we have a little event that will postpone initiation until after that day. We will fill you in on the details later."

Jaune raised an eyebrow, what could possibly be so important that they were forced to postpone initiation until the day after tommorow?

"Mr. Arc." Glynda called out to him, breaking him out of his train of thought. He walked up towards the stage, "Yes?"

The blonde witch gave him a once over, before nodding to herself, "Follow me, the headmaster wants to speak with you."

Huh?

He had just talked to the headmaster with Ruby yesterday, what could he possibly want now.

"Uhm, i-if I can ask, what exactly does the headmaster need me for?" he asked meekly.

Glynda sighed, "Even I don't know.

* * *

"WHAT!?"

"Headmaster, you can't be serious!?" Glynda exclaimed.

Ozpin steepled his fingers, his eyes nothing more then a devoid of emotions, "I'm afraid I'm not joking, Glynda. Mr. Arc is to fight you tommorow as a test, if he passes this test, he will be able to go through initiation. He didn't go through entrance exams after all."

Jaune sat there in shock, he had to fight Glynda Goodwitch.

Wait, let him rephrase that.

He had to fight Glynda Goodwitch, the deputy headmistress of Beacon, sometimes dubbed the witch of Beacon, a person that even Qrow was a bit afraid of.

How was that even fair?

"With all dur respect sir-" Jaune got cut off by Ozpin raising a hand.

Ozpin's eyes met Jaune's blue ones, "I don't believe I've given you permission to speak." his tone was cold, something Glynda had never before seen in the headmaster.

The boy was crushed under his glare, "I-I'll...let myself out."

He all but ran for the door, slamming it shut with a mighty thud.

"Headmaster, are you sure about this? This is a first year we're talking about." Glynda asked uncertaintly.

Ozpin didn't even spare her a glance, "Yes, I am."

"He was wielding the forgotten hero's sword anyways."

* * *

 **AN: Ah, the wonders of procrastinatio - you don't get work done but it feels good.**

 **Anyways, this chapter seemed a bit rushed, I needed to get it out as quick as possible - I need time to work on the fight scene I had planned, and It's gonna be a long one. I hope...**

 **This chapter was again, mostly filler, just trying to test out how well I do with conversations and whatnot. The action that you guys have been waiting for should be in the next chapter.**

 **On another note, about 165 followers and 123 (or something) favorites!? That is probably something I would've never expected unless I got to look at it myself. Thank you guys so much!**

 **Love it? Hate it? Leave a review!**

 **Cya!**


	5. Chapter 5

**I DON'T OWN RWBY!**

 **"The tounge has no bones, but is strong enough to break a heart. So be careful with your words." -Unknown.**

* * *

He grumbled incoherently as he made his way to the Beacon mess halls, a place bustling with students - or, soon to be students - who wanted to eat, make new friends, or just hang out in general. Seeing as initation had been postponed to tommorow, they figured they had a 'free day', and to be frank, they weren't wrong.

Though, everyone except for Jaune.

Of course, the world just _had_ to find some way to screw him over 6 ways 'till Sunday - yet again, he should've been used to stuff like this by now.

Because a wise man once said, "Always expect, the unexpected."

And he did _not_ just get that quote from a Backyardigans movie, nu uh...no way...Okay, maybe he did, but that episode had good music! And the main character was Pablo! Who doesn't like a-

He decided to stop himself from coming into a whole inner monologue lest he embarrass himself...only to himself.

Those were all moot points, the actual point was, he was in trouble, _huge_ trouble.

Now, he wasn't 'in trouble' for doing anything bad, far from it if you asked him. He just had to be the one lucky student to not take his entrance exams, thus leading him to his current predicament - having to face Glynda Goodwitch in a few hours as a test...in front of the many initiates and students of Beacon.

Yes, you god dang heard him right. _The_ Glynda Goodwitch - headmistress of Beacon, sometimes dubbed 'The witch of Beacon', feared by even Qrow and Taiyang. And he had to go against her in a one on one battle to decide if he was worthy enough to get into Beacon.

He was 100% sure none of the entrance exams were even close to being this hard.

He walked over to where Yang and Ruby were sitting, grabbing an apple of the latter's tray, seeing as she was only eating her sweets - and her strawberries - not paying attention to any other fruits on her tray. He let one shoulder prop his head up, and the other lay lazily over the table.

Taking a bite of his apple, he looked at the many initiates that were eating, duly noting a girl talking about pancakes, a boy - presumably next to said girl - saying something about _making_ pancakes for her, and he saw Weiss. She looked up to him and gave him a shy wave, which he returned in kind.

He turned his attention back at the two sisters, who were each eyeing him with curiosity- though the older of the two looked a bit more angry then usual, he didn't have the slightest idea why.

Ruby was the first to break the uneasy silence, "Uhm, you okay there Jaune?"

"No, not at all. If I had to rate how bad today was going to be, I would rate it a 10/10, and that's only because 11 wasn't an option." he deadpanned.

Yang and Ruby both shared a look, before the former asked, "Geez, what's got your panties in a bunch, Jauney boy?"

He took another bite of his apple, "You know how I never took the entrance exams," a nod from the two girls, "Well, that's kind of come to bite me back."

Ruby's expression became befuddled, "But I didn't take the entrance exams, why don't I have to do anything?" she asked, not that she _wanted_ to do anything else - the expression on Jaune's face showed that he probably had to do something bad.

He groaned, ignoring Ruby's question so he didn't further want to kill himself this very day, "So the headmaster thought it was an Oh So sweet idea to have me fight Glynda Goodwitch to make up for missing the entrance exams."

Ruby's mouth hung open, while Yang expressed her surprise more verbally, "WHAT!?" she shrieked, but instantly shrunk down in her seat as she saw almost every pair of eyes on her, an uncommon pink tint dusting her cheeks, "Ahem...what I meant to ask was - What!? How does that even seem remotely fair!?"

Jaune threw his hands up to show his frustration, "I know! That's what I thought too! They even postponed initiation for a whole day just so I could have my match with Goodwitch!"

Speaking of...

 _"Would Mr. Arc please come down to the combat arena?"_ the PA asked/announced.

Jaune sighed, before tossing his apple into the trash bin, "Welp, been fun knowing ya' and all that, be sure to play good music at my funeral."

The two sisters shared a second glance, before throwing away their trays and following the young Arc to the combat arena. The students murmered amongst eachother, before ultimately deciding it wasn't worth it - though, some people thought otherwise.

Weiss followed just because she was curious, and the fact that Jaune was the closest thing she could call an acquaintance, so she wanted to see what's up.

An orange haired girl and a black hair boy - who was unfortunately dragged along - decided to go see what's up, the former the only one getting to voice her opinion on the matter and taking her friend with her.

A girl with wavy red hair looked up from her meal, watching a match certainly was better then eating and having to deal with the constant stares. She threw away her plate and headed off towards the arena.

A girl with black hair shrugged, watching a fight was more interesting then having to listen to the loud chattering of other students. Closing her book, she walked off to watch the fight.

Needless to say, the young Arc was going to have quite the crowd watching his little skirmish.

* * *

His inner turmoil came to a halt as he found himself standing in the center of Beacon's arena, idly standing by and waiting for Glynda to come out through the entrance opposite of him. He tuned out any and all conversations he heard from the stands above - while there may have been a barrier protecting the people on the outside from oncoming projectiles, it sadly wasn't soundproof.

He let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding when he saw Glynda come through the entrance, her riding crop in one hand, and _Imitatio_ in the other. She threw the sword over to him and he caught it with out of instinct, raising a questioning eyebrow?

Either she didn't see it, or she didn't care, because she continued on nontheless, "Standard tournament rules. No blows that could physically leave injuries that could possibly kill the opponent - if given a chance, make the opponent forced into a state which he/she would be forced to yield. If a person's aura goes below 15%, that would be the match. Are we clear?"

Jaune nodded after a moment, surprised at how he was able to take all that information in stride. He heard someone clear their throat and looked to the stands to see Ozpin, his signature coffee mug and cane in his hands, "Now, are the two fighters ready?" he asked.

He nodded again, Glynda did not only a second later.

"Good. Now, on my mark ... ... ... Mark!"

 **"EXPLOSION!"**

Jaune took first charge, dashing towards his opponent in an attempt to surprise her. Slashing forwards and sending an arc of pure fire speeding her way. Glynda activated one of her glyphs and used it as a shield, the initial impact causing an explosion, temporarily blinding her.

He rolled out of the way of a purple projectile, flipping backwards and proceeding his charge. A torrent of purple energy was sent hurtling towards him, and his dodging speed was forced to increase ten-fold. Rolling around and flipping, occasionally getting grazed by a purple projectile, he wasn't getting anywhere at this point.

He _wouldn't_ get anywhere if he kept this up.

 **"RUNESAVE!"**

He slashed at the projectiles coming at him left and right, letting _Runesave_ absorb the energy within it's blade - his focus started to become strained due to all the focus he let out into containing the energy within his sword. Glynda hesitated for all but a second, and that was all he needed. In a last burst of speed, he rushed over towards the blonde witch and let out a slash to her torso...

Only for it to completely phase through her body.

"What the fu-" he didn't get to finish his sentence, as Glynda had already snapped out of her dazed state, and fired a wave of purple light towards the unsuspecting boy. He didn't have time to absorb the blast, and was sent flying towards the wall behind him.

He winced as he forced himself to stand, "What the actual hell?" he mumbled to himself, looking over his sword. In a curious attempt, he plunged the sword into the ground - and to his slight surprise - it went through with ease, not even a sound could be heard until it reached the hilt.

"Huh..." he mused aloud to himself. Apparently, _Runesave_ couldn't hit physical objects, that sucked.

His instincts _screamed_ at him to move, and he - being the smart person he was - decided to oblige, just barely dodging another incoming rain of purple energy balls. He let out a sigh of relief, before going with a different approach - his current one wouldn't work, so he had to compensate.

 **"SYLPHARION!"**

With newfound speed, he weaved through the projectiles gracefully, occasionally having to roll away from a projectile that barely managed to get even close to the speeding boy. He rushed forward and gave to quick slashes to the witch, who just barely was able to dodge these and send an energy beam at his stomach.

He lurched forwards, but continued his pursuit, using the momentum of getting hit to flip forwards and land a decent hit to her shoulder. He landed on his feet and rushed backwards from oncoming projectiles. He growled in frustration, the only way to beat her was by using _Runesave_ , and even then he probably wouldn't be fast enough to switch at the right moment.

Without anything that had a decent range, he didn't stand a chance against her. _Explosion_ could work, but he would need to be as close as possible.

His eyes widened as a purple energy ball impacted with his stomach and sent him clattering to the ground, now wasn't the time for hesitation!

He shakily stood up.

 **"RUNESAVE!"**

And launched himself forwards.

* * *

 _At the stands_

The two sisters watched his battle with excitement - though, with a tinge of worry for their friend. This wasn't looking like a battle he could win at the moment, but nontheless, they cheered the blonde boy on.

Weiss had an unreadable expression on her face, she watched the battle with a much more refined posture then the siblings, carefully noting his fighting style and analyzing ever single move made in the match. She duly noted that her sister had said something about fighting a guy with a greatsword that used the style she saw Jaune using right now - either said guy was Jaune, or he was trained by the guy.

It was most likely the latter.

The remaining four watched with much less interest then the other three, the orange haired girl was just naturally energetic, so it didn't come as a surprise when she was rooting for Jaune - even if she didn't know him.

Her black haired companion decided to make use of this fight, analyzing the battle, not too unlike Weiss. Though, his was more proffesional then Weiss's, it seemed.

The other two girls - red haired and black haired - didn't do much either. The latter watching the fight with a stoic expression on her face, while the former eyed both sides like she normally would when she entered a tournament.

None of this affected Jaune, though. He currently had a battle to win.

* * *

He swung at the oncoming projectiles, his moves noticeably slowler, but just enough to keep the energy from making contact with his body. He analyzed her body movements carefully - as carefully as one could when he/she were dodging a bunch of bullets, at least.

He had been showing visible signs of fatigue, taking in too much energy had taken it's toll on him. Quite awhile ago he had learned that _Runesave_ had a limit to how much it could actually hold, and it all depended on one's aura reserves. Which was a _very_ good thing in Jaune's eyes. He stopped his internal musings to flip out of the way of the oncoming projectiles, ducking under another and twirling his sword with his wrist, spinning it to create a makeshift shield.

He weaved through the purple energy, making the one mistake of jumping an inch too high, giving Glynda the chance to shoot out a wave of purple towards the boy. He got knocked back, and used his hand to slow himself down to a stop - it hurt like hell, but it was the fastest way to get back in the battle.

Gritting his teeth, he grabbed onto the hilt with both hands, he wouldn't be able to get close enough without _Sylpharion,_ yet _Sylpharion_ took too much concentrated energy to be able to switch within less then a half a seconds mark - his opponent's instincts didn't give him a large enough time frame.

He looked to his aura reserves, a good 60% was left in his, but Glynda had a monstrous 90% left. All those semblance attacks and she only used 10% or her aura!?

He tried every form he knew, yet he couldn't get a good hit on her - much less a decent strategy. If he constantly ran around with _Sylpharion_ he would lose in a battle of endurance, so there was only one thing left to do.

Screw it...

 **"EXPLOSION!"**

He closed his eyes, letting the sword's energy flow within him, the fiery energy just enough to land one of his special attacks. His eyes suddenly opened and he darted forwards, fast enough to the point where he was practically flying, his feet never touching the ground.

He spun away from one of the oncoming projectiles, and stopped right under Glynda's defenses, bringing his sword as far back as he could. He used all his strength to push the sword towards her stomach.

 **"BAKUGEKI DANCE EXPLOSION!"**

He slashed forwards, and with that followed a flurry of explosions, sending Glynda skidding backwards - but as she used her glyphs she was able to redirect the explosions to somewhere on the field in haste. The explosions peppering the ground around them, pieces of rubble lying in various spots around the field.

A bead of sweat trailed down his face, his breathing becoming more and more ragged every time he used an attack. He took a quick and subtle glance at the aura meters, and his eyes widened - Glynda was still at 79% while Jaune was at a measly 54%!

The smoke cleared out, but Glynda was nowhere in sight. Instead, the smoke unfurled to reveal a figure dashing towards him, a palm outreached, he barely had time to raise his arms out of reflex, before getting palmed to his chin, the intial impact making his teeth collide with a sickening click.

He was raised up into the air, before the figure jumped and grabbed both hands together to slam Jaune's body back into the ground like some volleyball player. Jaune felt his back hit the ground and squeezed his eyes shut, the pain becoming unbearable. Who was this person!? It didn't even feel like he/she had any skin!

He slowly got up and looked around, seeing Glynda with crossed arms and a stoic expression on her face, she flicked her riding crop around, but nothing happened around her. He furrowed his brows, before slowly, realization began to dawn upon him. Looking to the figure, he realized that it wasn't a person, it was just a complete carbon copy of himself made with the rubble from his explosions.

He also just realized that 'Rock Jaune' had disarmed him and stolen his sword.

Just. Mother. Dusting. Great.

What the hell could he do now?

He looked around, trying to find something - anything, that could be used against Glynda and Rock Jaune. His eyes scanned over the arena floor. Rubble wouldn't be good, seeing as Glynda could _make_ things out of the stuff. So the only thing left is...

He unconsciously reached into his pocket and pulled out a redt dust crystal.

Wait...Oh yeah! He grabbed this some time ago in case of emergencies!

He was feeling so much pride and happiness that he actually did something good pre-battle, something that could actually help him during the actualy fight. But the question was, how was he going to use it?

If he was remembering correctly, volatile dust like the one of he was holding, could be activated if given a hard enough impact - so with that in mind, all he had to do was land a well placed strike with this dust crystal to it's arm. Which would effectively disarm it, and give back Jaune his sword.

He ran forwards while clenching the dust crystal tightly within his fist, his eyes focused on the one part made of rock that he was going to focus on. Rock Jaune went for a straight to Jaune's face, and Jaune ducked under the punch, letting him slide on his knees between it's legs. He got on his foot and spun on his heel, landing a perfect palm strike to it's arm, causing the red dust crystal to detonate on impact.

The explosion was much larger then he thought it was, he just barely grabbed hold of his sword before he was sent flying due to the explosion and it's radius. It caused the whole rock figure to crumble back into tiny pieces of dust and pebbles.

The dust did take some aura out of him from the explosion's impact, but only enough to dip him down into 45%.

He smirked victoriously - the first thing that had happened in his favor since the match began.

But his eyes widened when the dust started to swirl around, pebbles shaking before coming together to form Rock Jaune again.

"Oh come on!" he growled to himself in frustration.

But this time, he felt something blast against his back, and he looked up to see Glynda had her riding crop outstretched, the tip of her weapon glowing a faint purple. Apparently Glynda had only started to see him as a threat right at this moment.

 **"SYLPHARION!"**

He hastily dodged the purple energy shot at him, the projectiles narrowly missing their target. His rolling around was stopped when a fist crashed into his face, sending him straight back into the ground for probably the umpteenth time.

He couldn't deal with two opponents at once!

He looked at his aura, a small 22% left. Only 7% more and he would have lost.

He shook his head. He couldn't lose here! He had gotten further then he ever imagined himself going! He had his friends and some others watching!

But what could he possibly do?

Then...the voice made it's way into his head, and he had no other choice but to repeat the exact words.

...

...

...

 **"Potentiam lucis tenebris obscurat. Potestas luna solis inumbrat. Videlicet cum lux est, et tenebrae tuae erunt. Veni foras! Million soles!"**

His sword changed into something he had never seen before, the sheer power that flowed within him was enough to make him feel like a god.

He gripped the sword tighter,mand he did the only thing that felt right...he plunged it into the ground.

The second it made it's way into the arena floor, everything was engulfed with light. The stands, the people, even the comabt arena itself, all of it had not a single spot of darkness in sight. He roared, wether it was from pain or from doing such a massive feat, he knew not.

But, just like that, the light was gone as quickly as it came, the students watching the fight having their arms shadowing their eyes in a vain attempt to stop the blinding light, took them away and rubbed at their eyes. They had looks ranging from awe to even fear.

He yanked the sword out of the sword out of the ground, heavily panting. Did that do it?

He looked to the screen, and he teared up on the spot.

Glynda was at 40%...

While he was at zero.

He faintly heard some people screaming his name, but none of that mattered as he slowly fell to the ground. His sword clattered onto the arena floor, and a lone tear made it's way out of his eyes.

He had failed, lost his chance to come to Beacon, failed his entrance exams, and he barely got his opponent down to less then half.

Yet, he still found it in him to make a tear stained smirk.

For he had lost...

...

...

...

Heh...

...

...

...

Ain't that a bitch.

* * *

 **AN:Ah, I loved writing this chapter, even if Glynda's fighting style was a monster to even write.**

 **Now, you may probably know the form he used - I mean, it's pretty obvious. As for why it didn't beat Glynda down more, I have an explanation. My version of Million Suns is that the light will only do massive amounts of damage to people who don't have a pure heart, or in other terms, those who don't possess true darkness. Since Glynda was a kind-hearted and nice person by nature - even if she didn't exactly show it - she didn't take as much damage as someone like Roman or Cinder would.**

 **The fight scene isn't really something I'm proud of. The reveals and idea for this chapter, sure. But the actual way I wrote it leaves something to be desired, even if this was probably the best chapter of a story I've ever written. Which just goes to show how much better I need to be at writing.**

 **Also, who liked that RVB reference ending?**

 **Anyways, I really want to thank you guys so much for letting me reach 210 followers, 160 favorites, and 45 reviews! And apparently this story has 8,800 or so views! This is incredible! To all the people who followed, favorited, and reviewed - or ever the people who just read it and gave it a chance, even if you didn't like it - I want to say, thank you for making me a happy boy. Everytime I don't feel like writing, I look to your kind words, and it makes me want to get more out for you guys.**

 **So thank you!**

 **Love it? Hate it? Leave a review!**

 **Cya!**


	6. Chapter 6

**(BN) Tada! And again, sorry for the delay.**

 **I DON'T OWN RWBY!**

 **"Well the name's Jaune Arc - short, sweet, rolls off the tounge, ladies love it!" -Jaune Arc [Miles Luna]**

 **Pre-Author's notes: Well you may be wondering why the hell I'm putting this on here, but I have an announcement to make.**

 **This story's cancelled!**

 **...**

 **If some of you fell for that I'm very dissapointed...**

 **Anyways, the real announcement here is I have a beta now! TheChaiGuy kindly offered his services to correct any dumb grammar mistakes I have - and will - make in future chapters including this one. It honestly never occurred to me that someone who read my stories would openly offer to beta some s*** story like this, but I guess I'm wrong.**

 **Nothing much to say; he's an avid reader of all things RWBY fanfiction with great grammar - apparently came across my story and saw lots of mistakes within my wording and such.**

 **Any and all grammar improvements are credited to that dude!**

 **'Nyways, onwards! (I totally didn't steal that introduction from someone else...)**

* * *

Beta: TheChaiGuy

The rhythmical beeping of the heart monitor was the only thing heard within the infirmary room, silence having reigned between the three girls watching over Jaune's unconscious form. His chest heaved with each breath; a deep breath in, and a slow exhale.

It had been 2 days since Jaune was forced to fight Goodwitch - and he hadn't woken up within that timeframe.

It wasn't that much of a surprise, aura exhaustion tended to come with the user in a knocked out state for awhile. The only real worry, however, was the constant mumblings he said within his sleep. Barely audible, but most certainly there.

This had been a cause for concern between the three of them, yet it was a normal occurrence every day. Sweat would pour down his face, his teeth would bite his lip until it drew blood, and his eyes would squint shut like he was straining with something. The mumbling would begin; and while it wouldn't be anything comprehendible, they were still able to pick up bits and pieces here and there.

 _Parents..._

 _Weapon..._

 _Who are you...?_

Nightmares.

Whether it was from aura overexertion, or just a natural occurrence, they didn't know. The latter was highly unlikely though, due to the fact that it happened two days straight.

He would squirm around in his bed, and Yang, Ruby, and sometimes even Weiss would have to lull him back to sleep like a child. It took Yang's parental instincts, Ruby's happiness, and Weiss's understanding to even have a chance at putting him out of his misery - and to their relief, that was all they needed.

The muttering would die down, his eyes would come back to a peaceful state, and his breathing would go back through the same process it normally did.

In, and out.

One of the three gently took one of the blonde boy's hands within her own, her eyes looking at his sleeping figure with concern.

The doctor had said Jaune would be fine - the boy had a strong will, something that Ruby and Yang were very well aware of. But...he still had a chance of death, and even the tiniest sliver of that negativity was enough to send Yang, Ruby - and to a bit of a lesser extent, Weiss - into overdrive.

They would constantly watch the boy when they didn't have to eat, and even then if allowed to do so, would eat in the infirmary just to make sure he wouldn't be alone.

They were also grateful, though, that the Headmaster had decided to postpone initiation again because one of his students would miss out, and he couldn't have that.

Though, there was only some truth behind that statement; and the girls only decided not to speak up because they knew their place. Ozpin had secrets, they were sure he did - but something about the way he said it made a shiver run down their spines.

Her hand gently rubbed circles around his knuckles, caring eyes staring at his face. He looked peaceful like this, eyes closed with his breathing like a lullaby to help him sleep. His arms stayed straight on the side of his bed, and his head was propped up with a few pillows.

Moments later, she reluctantly pulled her hand away - her gloved hand away - and went off with the other two girls to go get some food to quench their eating needs.

She took one last glance at the open room, her eyes focusing on the sleeping boy once more, before sighing and closing the door.

But before the door clicked shut, she whispered a few words through the open crack.

"Please...wake up Vomit Boy...if not for yourself, then for us-no...for me."

* * *

 _He looked around at the remains of what probably had been a beautiful place, buildings crumbling and rubble piling up on the ground. Sounds of war echoing throughout the...battlefield?_

 _He never understood what this was, or how he got here in the first place._

 _What were these?_

 _Dreams?_

 _Memories?_

 _Nightmares?_

 _Clashing metal sounded out from every corner, every angle he could possibly see - tearing flesh that brought tears to his eyes rang through his ears. He duly noted that two flags sat on either side, there wasn't anything too familiar on the right side, but he knew what was on the left._

 _It was the old White Fang symbol._

 _This was a blast in the past to the Great War between humans and faunus._

 _Jaune looked around to the familiar sight, these visions never stopped - and he doubted they would until he woke up...if he was even asleep right now._

 _How many times had he seen this vision already?_

 _Once?_

 _Twice?_

 _He didn't know, and couldn't fathom the possibility of this ever happening to someone. His hand instinctually tightened, and his eyes widened; he had actually felt something when he did that._

 _This...this hadn't happened in his previous visions..._

 _He looked down, and what he saw only furthered his bewilderment - it was a sword. But not just any sword, no._

 _It was Imitatio._

 _What?_

 _What was Imitatio doing here?_

 _He inspected the sword carefully, looking for any inconsistencies from the weapon he normally wielded, but he only saw a few. This version of Imitatio was a bit more worn out around the edges, the hilt couldn't pop in and out of place, but that wasn't what caught his attention the most, no._

 _It also felt wierd in his grip - and not in the bad kind of wierd, mind you - and it was like it gave him strength he never could imagine himself having. It was just like when he used the light form of Imitatio against Goodwitch; it was exhilarating._

 _Was this..._

 _Was this what Imitatio was capable of?_

 _He couldn't imagine himself having this kind of power within his sword - within him. Again, it was like when he used Imitatio's light form, only it was stronger._

 _But back to his previous question at hand..._

 _What was Imitatio doing here in the first place?_

 _It didn't somehow alter the fabric of dreams and reality, did it?_

 _He sighed, walking about the battlefield, forced to look at the bloodshed of war in person. The weird thing was, they paid him no attention, he just walked by and the fighters didn't even spare him a glance. Even the people or faunus that were unoccupied; they didn't notice him when he walked right past their line of sight._

 _They couldn't see him, but could they hear him?_

 _"Hello~" he called out, testing his theory._

 _He could clearly tell he had said 'hello', yet no one even looked anywhere near his direction! I mean, sure - he was in a dream, no way he would be able to alter what had happened in the real world._

 _Oh wait!_

 _That's exactly what dreams do!_

 _He scowled, before wincing as he saw a human slash one of the faunus square in the chest, and then spin on his heel to brutally stab another._

 _Was he a ghost in this dream?_

 _But that wouldn't be possible, he had Imitatio securely within his grip at this very moment - plus, it didn't look like it would be phasing through his hand anytime soon. Either that or Imitatio was just a part of him in this dream_

 _With a puzzled expression - one that quickly turned into disgust - he walked over to one of the humans fighting, and lightly poked him in the arm. And it was able to draw blood. Despite that though, he did nothing about it and just continued fighting his opponent._

 _Curiosity overtook his sense of normality, and he slashed at the humans back reluctantly. It made contact, and he was forced to watch as the human fell on his chest with a thump, unmoving to the world around him. His opponent took one look at the body, before rushing over to help one of his - or her, he wasn't sure - comrades._

 _What the actual f*** was going on here!?_

 _He just killed a guy, and the faunus didn't so much as look at the person responsible for that, and rushed off to help another. This may have been war, but that wasn't normal at all._

 _At least, he thought it wasn't normal in a war - he had never partook in something like this, so he wouldn't know. He did know, however, that time was precious in something like this._

 _So maybe the faunus just went with it in hopes that it would happen again?_

 _He shook his head, it still made no sense to him - and he was disgusted with the fact that he had to kill a guy to see what would happen. Sure it was just a dream, and it wasn't real. But that still didn't take away from the initial reaction to seeing flesh torn and blood spilled out._

 _And yet, after all this, he just noticed he was able to look around the battlefield with a calm expression - not once did he remember running somewhere secluded to go puke his guts out, which surprised him now that he thought about it._

 _Why was that?_

 _He took a few steps forwards, but something in him told him to move, and he wasn't one to go against his gut. He flipped back away from an incoming shield projectile spinning towards him, landing with his feet crossed and following it up with a corkscrew flip away from the shield moving back to it's owner like a boomerang._

 _He gripped Imitatio with both hands, looking through the ashen remains of what was left of the city for his attacker; his blue peripherals taking in the scene with a critical eye._

 _But, he realized that he hadn't willed his body to do that other flip. Under someone's control, he was able to catch a small glint within the battlefield of madness, and rushed towards it against his will._

 _His greatsword collided with a shield, the force of a typhoon against the willpower of an immovable wall; the scene around him slowly changing in color to a more darker hue then he was used to._

 _Had the scene around him changed? Or was that just...something else entirely?_

 _He pushed against the shield with a grunt and ducked under the incoming swing of a longsword, pivoting his feet and aiming a stab to disarm his opponent. His attacker spun to the side to narrowly avoid the strike, and jumped back, gaining distance._

 _A long silence reigned upon the two, and that only elicited a tighter grip on Imitatio - Jaune was getting nervous. Despite not being able to move his own body, it appeared his natural tendencies still happened to his body when it was being controlled by...whatever it was being controlled by._

 _The man opposite of him was the one to break the silence, "...We don't have to fight, you know" he stated solemnly, something unfamiliar in the midst of all the cries of war happening around the two fighters._

 _Yeah, we don't have to fight!_

 _That was what he wanted to shout to the man, but he doubted he would be able to get it across - and to his expectancy, he said something entirely different then what he meant to._

 _"Yes, we do. We would rather die then let some humans prison us and make further fools of us." a deep voice - nothing like his own - responded back, a hint of reluctance within it._

 _The man sighed, "So be it."_

 _Some humans?_

 _That made, absolutely no sense._

 _He felt his body tense up, but that wasn't what completely caught his attention; it was the silver lock of hair that dangled in front of his eyes. Wait..._

 _Silver!?_

 _He wasn't even in his own body!?_

 _A roar brought him out of his thoughts, and he looked to see of piller of dark aura encircling someone._

 _"ARC IV!"_

 _Arc IV?_

 _Did that...did that use his last name?_

 _He didn't get to think about it further, when words started to come out of his mouth - without his knowledge of course._

 _"RAV-omit boy..."_

 _Vomit boy..._

 _Yang!?_

 _"Please...wake up Vomit Boy...if not for yourself, then for us-no...for me."_

 _Us?_

 _Did that mean he was keeping everyone waiting? That he was worrying them while he stayed unconscious; leaving them wondering if he was going to stay alive or not?_

 _Great...now he felt like an a***._

 _"Heh sorry for keeping you waiting...Yang._ _"_

 _With his piece said, he felt himself blinded by the harsh light of Beacon's infirmary, finally awake for the whole world to see._

* * *

Yang sighed, it was a small, and dumb hope at best - but it was worth a shot. She stayed a little longer then she should have, peering through the crack in hopes that he would finally awake from his long slumber, but he didn't.

With a sad smile, she closed the door and began to walk towards Weiss and Ruby, quite famished from not eating in awhile.

But then she heard him...

"Heh, sorry for keeping you waiting...Yang."

She rushed back to the infirmary and slammed the door open with her arms.

"Jaune!"

* * *

 **BN:Hello there! As the writer of this story mentioned, I am helping beta test this story because like you fellow readers I am a fan of his work! Sorry for the delay on my part, as I had a vacation literally sprung on me...yeah.**

* * *

 **AN:Well, that was probably the quickest chapter I've written for this story. Even if it was a pretty short one. Took about 1-2 hours; not including breaks in between, of course.**

 **Again, I'd like to thank TheChaiGuy for offering to beta this story for me, any and all better grammar usage goes to him!**

 **And I'd also like to thank you guys, for making me rethink the impossible.**

 **Five chapters in, and this story is already almost reaching the 300 mark for followers; that's just...amazing. I honestly don't care if you call this half-assed at best - if that's what you think, then okay. But I see this as a writer showing his thank you's by writing chapter for his readers better, more efficiently, and faster.**

 **On another note, I recommend you check out SnoopZwei's 'Remnants of Time', it's actually a pretty cool concept that's portrayed out decently. I do beta for the story, in case you were wondering my relation with the guy. But seriously, it's worth the read if you like getting terminator feels from a story.**

 **Anyways, thank you to all the people aforementioned above!**

 **Love it? Hate it? Leave a review!**

 **Cya!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Golly gee, it seems like I don't own RWBY! Goodie for me!**

 **"Sometimes, you need to quite the mediocore things to experience the amazing." -Unknown**

* * *

 **BETA:** TheChaiGuy

* * *

With mild amusement, he watched as the door creaked with protest, just barely keeping hold onto its hinges - what with Yang's strength and all, he was surprised the door even held up at all. The thoughts were quickly shook out of him, roughly; as he himself was almost toppled over by the sheer amount of force Yang put into one, bear-crushing hug. He was half sure that anyone without aura would be sporting minor to major bruises right about now.

Thing is, aura didn't help him recieve air, which was becoming quite a troubling thing to do when you had someone clinging to your neck, unwilling to let go. He struggled to even reach his hand in the air, opting to tap her shoulder once or twice, conveying the message.

Thankfully, she got it, lossening her grip, but not releasing him altogether. He did return the hug, however. It would've been rude not to - at least, in his mind it was rude, he was too socially awkward to understand the rules of society.

He didn't understand something; why was she this ecstatic in the first place? In his mind, he saw only two logical answers in the matter. Either he had been passed out for a bit too long, or they were just that good of friends - but he was leaning to the former, they had only known each other for about a week or so, after all.

Wait a minute...

"Yang?" asked slowly, a slight hint of fear present in his voice.

He heard her make a slight noise in the back of her throat, but otherwise, she said nothing. Jaune took this as a sign to continue his inquiry.

"H-how long have I been out?"

She pulled back slowly, hands still on his shoulders, looking him in the eyes with warmth, compassion, and an emotion Jaune couldn't quite put his finger on - though he decided to let it go for now, it shouldn't have been too much of a concern.

Especially when there was a larger problem as of now.

"About...two days, give or take." she informed.

He stared, looking her over, just to confirm her statement for himself - and after seeing no hint of deception whatsoever, he promptly shouted.

"What!? Two days!? What about initiation!? The fight!? Did I lose!? Do I have to-!?" he started to ramble off a list of thing that could have potentially gone out of his favor in the past two days, during his unconscious state; abruptly silenced, however, by a new voice joining in the fray.

"Relax. Initiation was postponed by Headmaster Ozpin until you woke up." the voice assured.

His eyes narrowed, confusion etched upon his face, before slowly turning his head towards where the voice originated. His stare caused Weiss to back up uncomfortably, in fears that she might have said something wrong - she couldn't fathom what, but it was still a possibility.

"W-Weiss?" he questioned, tilting his head.

She awkwardly looked to the side, "Er, yes. That's me...Why?"

He said nothing, giving the snow-white girl a once-over, as if to make sure that she was actually there in the first place - lest he embarrass himself by talking to hallucinations.

"You're...here..." he said, mostly to himself, again trying to confirm the statement that processed through his head.

"Yes...again, why?" she asked, confused.

'I should be asking her that' he thought to himself.

"Why?" he repeated what she said, using her own question against her.

Weiss raised an eyebrow, "What? It's only natural that I come and visit a fri-an acquaintance when he or she is injured."

Jaune's eyes widened, before he setlled back down, growing a content smile, "Oh. Well, in any case, thanks Weiss."

He didn't see her reaction further, but if he did, he would've seen the light pink dust across her cheeks - she didn't know why, she didn't know how, she had never even felt this emotion before. It was like talking with Winter, it made her feel warm inside. But with Jaune...it was different.

Though, Yang didn't seem to be particularly happy about what she did, because it seemed she was right. Weiss was crushing on Jaune; and some part of her, some part of her that liked to tease her internally, was saying her Jaune.

And, scarily enough, she almost didn't deny that.

"Jaune!" Ruby squeaked, jumping up and encircling her arms at his waist, like Yang had did only moments before.

He smiled softly, rustling her hair, "Hey Rubes! Did'ja miss me?""

She mumbled something into the fabric of his shirt, but couldn't quite catch it, so asked, "Hm? What was that?"

"Nothing!" she replied quickly, face growing as red as her namesake, holding onto him tighter. Thankfully, it wasn't around the neck, so he could breathe...to a certain extent, at least - breathing without someone clutching your stomach would be more preferable, honestly.

"Okay then." he relented, literally feeling how uncomfortable she was getting, and deciding to let the matter drop, if only to relieve her from whatever inner turnoil she was having. Trust him, Jaune knew what it was like to feel that, and it sucked.

You were, essentially, fighting yourself - pretending it was two states of your mind clashing, two that just didn't intertwine well. When in all honesty, you were just trying to make your mind up on something. It could be small, or it could be large - like deciding to let their feelings open to one's crush.

Back on track though...

"Why would they stop initiation for two days just for me?" he asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow with a disbelieving expression.

They could see where he was coming from - Yang and Ruby especially. During their time with him, they noticed that Jaune constantly belittled himself in the face of greater people or foes, so much so that he would call himself pathetic. Yang and Ruby didn't like it, they hated it; if there was one thing they could change about Jaune Arc, it would be his self-deprecation.

So it made sense he would think he was little, and didn't deserve to be waited on during such a big event.

"That, Mister Arc, is a question you will not have the answer to until the event is finished." a voice cut in, walking through the door with his cane in hand. His glasses gleamed oddly with the light, clashing with his normal look - but it still made him look mysterious. It probably just came with the name.

"Oh yeah, when is the event anyhow?" he asked no one in particular.

"Mister Arc, you're feeling better, are you not?" Ozpin questioned cryptically.

He furrowed his eyebrows, shushing any attempts of denial from the three girls close to him, "Yeah, fine actually. I don't really feel anything bad, and my aura should be replenished."

Ozpin smirked, "Then you will be pleased to know that Initiation starts in 30 minutes, and you must be ready to go."

Wait...

"What!?" he shouted, Ruby and Yang shared his sentiment, shouting it with him in tandem - and while Weiss was the more reserved and polite of the four, you could see the confusion evident on her face.

"They didn't even announce that on the PA!" Yang reasoned.

"First years, please make your way to the Emerald Forest launch pads in 30 minutes. Initiation will soon begin." the PA announced.

Yang stared at the speaker box with hatred - dramatic hatred, honestly. It wasn't that big of a deal, but they still had about a hundred arguements they could use to back them up in saying this was illogical.

But...Jaune, being the...Jaune he was, reluctantly agreed, plopping his feet on the ground and taking a few test steps. He limped over to his sword and clothes - but it gradually became lesser and lesser, to the point where it could be considered a normal walk again.

"Alright, just-actually, do they have a shower near here?" he asked.

Ozpin nodded, "Yes, it's quite close, just make a right at the end of the hallway, and then a left. They should be at the sides - both men and women respectively.

He nodded back, "Thanks headmaster."

He started trudging off towards the bathrooms, but was stopped by a sudden comment from Yang, "Hey...Jaune? Do you need help getting over there?"

He pondered that for a moment, before ultimately shaking his head, "I don't need help, but I would enjoy the company."

Yang's mood brightened, and she jumped off of the bed, rushing to get in step with her fellow blonde, while waving to Ruby and an irritated Schnee heiress - though Weiss herself didn't exactly know why she was mad, neither did Ruby and Jaune. But Yang...she had a pretty good idea.

And it involved a certain blonde knight she may or may not have been taking a liking to.

He walked - uncomfortably within the contents of his hospital gown, walking out in the open with this thing made him embarrassed. It was one of the reasons he asked someone to walk with him in the first place - it would be less embarrassing this way. Not that he didn't enjoy the company, he quite loved to be hanging out with his friends.

It's just that...he couldn't help but feel embarrassed.

A comfortable silence reigned between the two blondes, Jaune hummed a catchy tune, and Yang started to whistle it - it was one of her favorite songs, after all. They looked at eachother and grinned, making the whole trip a challenge to hum and whistle the whole song in tandem. It was actually quite fun - it sounded boring when you thought about it, but when you actually did it, it was quite enjoyable.

Especially if you got the whole song right.

They arrived at the mens stall in a few minutes, looking over the door. "Well, I'll be quick. Grab a quick apple or something - preferably some water too. And meet you at the initiation grounds."

Yang hesitated, before nodding, clearly noticing he was in a condition to walk around and do things on his own, despite being hospitalized for two days.

He waved, and she waved back.

He stepped into the bathroom and put his clothes next to the bench, with his sword laid out on top of it all. He turned the shower on and stripped of his hospital gown, scurrying to the shower and getting to just the right temperature. He sighed, this was one of the reasons he lived.

He loved showers.

* * *

After the particularly refreshing task, he quickly changed into his normal attire and grabbed Imitatio, sliding it into it's sheath, hearing the audible click. He walked off to the mess hall, greeted with the sight of a few people, hastily eating their meals while checking the clock.

He shrugged to himself, grabbing an apple and a bottle of water, chugging it down in five seconds. He threw away the empty bottle, taking a good bite from his preferred food. It may have not been much, but it would be enough - he wasn't exactly hungry, far from it. He had pills for that - why he didn't have pills for motion sickness but pills for headaches, he had no clue. And he had a feeling he would be able to get through initiation on nothing but an apple.

Besides, he looked at it a different way, he'd get to eat to his hearts content when he was done.

With that notion firmly implanted within his mind, he made quick work of his apple, throwing the treat away when he finished. He spotted a few of the people that had watched his fight, eating at various spots along the tables.

He checked the time, about ten minutes left; he didn't see Ruby, Yang, or Weiss anywhere in sight, so he figured they heeded his directions and headed straight for the 'launch pads'.

He still didn't get why they were called launch pads though, surely they wouldn't just throw them into the air without a concern whatsoever. Right?

Right?

* * *

He should've known not to test his luck by now - but alas, it just never came to him that he would forever be with bad luck, and there would be no way to get out of it. He sighed, looking over the launch pads; actual launch pads.

'Is this even safe?' he asked himself.

He didn't know the answer to that, and from the looks of it, it looked like he was the only one that even asked the question - even if it was to himself. The students around him looked determined, and unfazed by the fact that they were about to be launched in mid-air. Though, he shouldn't have been surprised.

Always expect the unexpected.

He should really listen to kids shows more often then not.

"That being said," oh wait, Ozpin was talking? "the first person you make eye contact with is going to be your partner for the rest or your four years."

Huh...seems like a logical-

Wait what!?

It seemed as though Ruby was in the same wavelength as him - shouting out his previous thoughts not only milliseconds later. But he could understand where she was coming from, it seemed illogical - their partners were essentially picked at random. How would that work well for anybody?

No one could've guessed this outcome.

"Hah! I told you!" a bubbly voice bragged to the person next to her.

On second thought, maybe they could.

He shook his head, but listened intently as the headmaster explained their objective; grab a relic, fight the grimm, and return to the cliffs. It seemed simple, but he doubted it actually was - there were probably a few bigger grimm that would be harder to fight along the way.

"Now, take your positions." the headmaster directed.

They obliged, each setting into their own, respective fighting stance. Jaune unsheathed Imitatio, closing his eyes and getting back with the general feel of the flow of energy it created within him. He mulled over how exactly he wa going to get down without potentially breaking all of his bones.

'Explosion would be the only choice.' he decided.

He heard the first student get launched into the air, air wooshed around the rest as the launch pad sprung up. The student was sent flying, and used their weapons to gently slow their fall.

One by one, more people were launched into the air, and more people made the landing look like a piece of cake - he duly noted Ruby gave him a reassuring thumbs up, which he returned with a thankful smile. Though, he didn't know if he could actually stick the landing himself.

He could only hope.

It was almost his turn, he could feel the anxiety threatening to rip through his calm persona, and he hastily pushed it back down to a manageable level - he didn't know how he was able to do it, maybe it was the rush of finally being able to fight the grimm. In anycase, he would be ready.

It was one person until he was the one launched into the air, waiting for the inevitable rush he would feel as he flew. He duly noted shouting out the sword's form, until he thought against it - he could just say it slightly softer, after all.

"Explosion." he muttered to himself, letting the sword change forms within the palms of his hands.

"Mister Arc." Ozpin called out, looking towards the blonde boy with an undefinitive expression. Jaune looked back, confusion etched clearly onto his features, "Good luck."

"Thanks." he said, mentally shrugging - the headmaster was always cryptic, it wasn't exactly a surprise that he was doing just that right now.

He was sent into the air, feeling the strong breeze impacting his face roughly, before becoming a more manageable feeling of the rush of air. With a growl, he slashed down, eliciting an explosion to happen near his feet, launching him a few more feet into the air. He figured that since this thing worked off aura, he could just put less aura into it, and the explosion would be less dangerous.

He repeated this process - feeling a bit of his aura drain each time - until he landed onto the ground with a thud. With a sigh, he stood up, surveying his surroundings with a critical eye, gripping the hilt of Imitatio tighter. He didn't remember seeing anyone land particularly close to him, ao he trudged off into the direction that the Headmaster directed them to go.

North.

Though, as a low growl sounded out, he twisted to the source of the noise, and met the faces of two Ursi - staring him down menacingly like he was their prey. He watched the first Ursa charge at him, aiming a paw strike towards his head - anticipating this, he deftly blocked it with the side of his sword, cutting through skin as he did so. He spun on his heel, grunting as he let out a slash to its chest, pouring his aura into the strike. It created an arc of orange energy, exploding on impact, sending him back a few feet. One down.

He turned to face the other Ursa, charging at it, his sword above his head. He aimed to cleave the Ursa in two.

Though, he would have, if not for the fact that it dropped dead when he got into slashing radius. He raised en eyebrow, watching as the Ursa fell to the ground in a smoking pile of limbs.

The person who did this, however, was someone he recognized that had watched his fight. With black wavy hair, and a katana sheathed at her back. A ribbon encircled her wrist - most likely somehow connected to her katana - with a black bow, sitting atop her head.

"Erm," he started somewhat lamely, "Hi?"

* * *

Ozpin and Glynda looked over the Emerald Forest, with the latter looking like she was holding back a question she oh so dearly wanted to ask.

"Glynda." he spoke, "What do you want to ask?"

She stiffened, before relaxing - she was standing next to one of the strongest huntsman in the entirety of Remnant, and she wasn't exactly being subtle in her movements.

"I just don't understand why you're so interested in that Arc boy. He may have a peculiar weapon, but you've probably seen a fair share of those in your time." she said, looking at Ozpin with a questioning expression.

Ozpin held back a sigh, he should've known this topic would come up sooner or later, but was trying to avoid it for the time being. Though, he couldn't avoid it now.

"Are you familiar with what the Arc's did during the great war?" he asked.

Glynda shook her head - history wasn't what she particularly excelled at, she did talk to Oobleck occasionally, but she could never understand his speeches about history as well as one might think.

He was just too fast.

"Well...the story goes like this..."

* * *

 **BN: Cliffhanger on a cliff!**

* * *

 **AN:I feel like such a tease.**

 **Anyways, not much is revealed this chapter - and Jaune is partnered up with Blake. Does that mean there will be later feelings between the two?**

 **I dunno...**

 **The ending was a bit rushed, I wrote about 2,500 words in...I don't know how many minutes. And it had taken me 3 days just to write the first 500 words.**

 **Yes, I suck that much at writing hospital scenes. I don't honestly know why, it's just a problem with me - I look at an interaction between one character and another, and I feel like it needs to be more professional. But when I make it 'more professional', I end up writing dialogue that the character would never say...ever.**

 **But I got through! So I'm happy with that.**

 **Anyways, on another note, thank you TheChaiGuy for beta'ing this chapter! I really appreciate it, honestly, I do!**

 **On...something somewhat related, I feel the need to point out that some fics don't get the recognition they deserve, and I feel like I don't deserve what huge support I get on this fic. So I shall take it upon myself to make sure said fics get the views they deserve! If shoutouts even help at all...**

 **One of the friends I made on this sight - Lamenaza - has written a few chapters into his somewhat new fic called Collapse, and you should give it a read if you're a fan of a villainous Jaune. The first and second chapters might be a bit...iffy, but from what I've heard on his profile, he's starting to rewrite the entire story - better grammar and all.**

 **I'll take it upon myself to do this every chapter...so yeah.**

 **On another note, thank you all for 310 follows and 237 favorites! It means so much to me that the people that like this story have already surpassed the 300 mark in follows - and it's still pretty unbelievable for me. And also, thank you to all that review, and all that just read the story in general, whether you like it or not!**

 **So, I got this point across during chapter four of one of my other stories, but I feel the need to put it here - I forgot to put it in A Grimm Fate, like the dumb kid I am, but that's moot.**

 **MeteoriteCreature's death.**

 **I didn't know him personally, heck, I could just be described as a regular reader of his fic 'Love Traingle' - which, in all honesty, I was. Some people may have heard the heartbreaking news, but if you didn't...well...how should I put this...**

 **He's gone, not here anymore...he's dead.**

 **He went through a rough life, that's what I was able to pick up on from that message they were able to get across from his fics, from r*** to death throughout his life, the world just seemed to be out to get it for some inexplicable reason. His death...I can only hope that it took him to see his loved ones again.**

 **I admire him for his ability to persevere, with outside help, of course. But it was him who was able to make the decision to do what he did.**

 **I don't know him well...I practically don't know him at all...but I feel like I needed to get this across to you guys.**

 **He was a great writer, and from what the message his friends gave, he was also a very great man. To those close to him, I'm sorry to you guys. But I'm guessing you don't want my half-assed version of an apology, especially since just saying that can seem so insincere sometimes, so I'll shut up in that regard.**

 **All I can say is, rest in peace. Hopefully you've been taken to be with the one you loved.**

 **Man...I'm not good at this stuff.**

 **And yes, I know that this was exactly what I said in Heroes and Villains, but again, the point needs to be gotten across that Meteorite Creature was a great writer, and someone who was able to persevere through his life - all the way 'till the end...**

 **Love it? Hate it? Leave a review! Or don't, your choice really.**

 **Cya!**

 **[IWEYC used teleport!]**


	8. I suck

**I DON'T OWN RWBY**!

* * *

Jaune forced the urge to sigh back down in his throat; he honestly should've expected as much, a social introvert walking with a socially awkward teen in a forest alone...weren't the best circumstances to strike up a conversation. He was able to ask a question or two about initiation and such, but even those were only dignified with short word responses.

It wasn't all boring, though - they were able to come across some grimm along the way. Each one, however, was met with a quick end, either via explosion, or from quick decapitations by Blake's katana. There hadn't been much really - the majority of the grimm they faced were beowolves, and on occasion, an ursa or two.

He was glad they didn't come across an Ursa Major or an Alpha Beowolf; it would take considerably more time and effort, plus he was never actually trained to fight the grimm in the first place.

From what he had learned first-hand, though, was that each different grimm species had different habits, natural reactions, fighting patterns, and a lot more.

The most notable, he had found, were that beowolves liked to group in packs, which is why they were even considered a threat in the first place. Alone, even a civilian could handle one of them if he or she had a weapon of some sort. But grouped together, it made them all the more dangerous - though, if only for the fact that they outnumbered you more than anything else.

Whereas an ursa usually traveled alone - and sometimes, traveled in pairs. Ursai could beat a beowolf in strength; and while beowolves could outspeed them, Ursai also had the better endurance of the two, making it so that the beowolf would get tired first just by attacking it too much.

He barely noticed how the small twigs scratched across his cheek - too distracted by his own thoughts, as well as the scenery around him. The bugs that buzzed created a soothing ambience, as well as the way the birds chirped - it was quite peaceful really.

As much as he loathed to admit it, though, he couldn't lose himself to all the beautiful things that the forests held, for it was still teeming with grimm at every corner.

Imitatio bumped across his back every few steps he took - it wasn't really bothering him much as of now, but he felt he should address the issue after this was over, that is, if he even passed to begin with.

Blake came to a sudden stop, and Jaune was just barely able to stop himself from lrunning into her. The confusion was evident on his face, but as he peered across her shoulder, his eyes widened; it seemed like nothing special, just a normal cave.

The drawings across the walls proved otherwise.

Human stick figures held spears, poised for a massive creature aiming to kill - the pictures seemed old, like hieroglyphics, in a sense. Though, he doubted these pictures represented a language of their own.

Although, considering the fact that the drawings were here in the first place, it could mean it was dangerous to go in - either that or it contained the relics, and he was really hoping for the latter.

"Do you think this is where the relics are located?" he asked skeptically, looking into the gaping hole, seeing the darkness that it held.

Blake didn't respond for a moment, but she eventually answered, "No, I don't think so. Ozpin did say they were located at the ruins."

"Well," he paused, "do you think there's anything in there at all?"

"Most likely." Blake said, "There isn't exactly going to be a cave in the middle of the forest for no reason. It's most likely a Death Stalker's home, so we should avoid it for now."

Jaune's eyebrows furrowed, "But wait, what if someone else goes in and has to face the Deathstalker?"

Blake winced, the thought had popped up in the back of her mind as well, she didn't want to leave the people to a horrible fate, but what else could they do? "What do you propose we do, then? Go in and fight it ourselves? You know better than I do that we don't have the skills to take it on, even with the two of us fighting side by side."

Jaune didn't answer, as he stared ahead into the deep depths of the cavern ahead - he wanted to go in and fight the Deathstalker, preferably alone. But he knew his limits, and even with Blake at his side, he couldn't guarantee his safety, much less Blake's.

Jaune gave a reluctant sigh, "I'm going in - you don't have to follow me, but I'm going in regardless."

Blake frowned, "You're aware that a Deathstalker takes at least a 3'rd year to beat alone, right?"

"All the more reason to go in." Jaune answered immediately.

Blake sighed in irritation, "Fine, if you're going then I'm going too; can't have my partner dying before initiation even ends, now can I?"

Jaune's eyes widened in alarm, "Wait! But it's too dangerous! What if something happens or...something!?"

"All the more reason to go in." Blake parroted his words with verbatim.

Jaune's lower lip settled into a pout, before groaning at the look of determination on his partner's face. He unsheathed Imitatio and held it with both on his hands tightly.

"Explosion." he muttered.

"Are you sure you want to come along?" he questioned hesitantly.

Blake rolled her eyes, "Yes, I'm sure."

Jaune grimaced, he had really been hoping that she would've said no - but that was pointless and he knew it. She was training to be a huntress for dusts sake, of course she wouldn't abandon someone else for her own safety.

"So, you got a light source anywhere?"

* * *

"Bad idea! BAD IDEA!" Jaune yelped, narrowly dodging the debris that fell over his head, slicing through one or two stray stones that threatened to smash his skull in.

Blake didn't even dignify that with a response, too focused on the fact that she could get squashed at any moment to even care at this point.

They had found something, all right - and it looked like Blake had been right in the regard of this being a Deathstalker's home. The drawings on the sides of the walls should've made it obviously clear, but it seemed that her partner lacked the perceptive skills she did.

Not very surprising, considering her past.

Jaune could barely see - the only light source he had was the faint glow that came off of Explosion, and as dim as it was, he had only slightly been able to dodge possible death.

He considered letting out an explosion at the creature rushing towards them, but ultimately decided against it - that would only result in the cave likely collapsing on top of them in a matter of mere seconds. Dodging a few stray stones was already hard enough; but a whole cavern?

He shuddered just thinking about how he'd get out of that.

Blake was contemplating something - the fact remained that she could see in the dark, but her partner couldn't. And while he hadn't gotten crushed by anything as of yet, it was still a possibility. She didn't want to be the cause of another death; she came her to stop killing dammit!

She grit her teeth, though this was a dire situation, she still wasn't sure. The entrance was just a few yards away, in a few seconds Jaune would be able to run free, without worrying about the lighting or anything falling on top of him.

"SLYPHARION"

His sword shifted into Slypharion, and he gained a large burst of speed - just enough to dash through the cave entrance, all the while grabbing onto Blake's wrist and throwing her out into the open. She heard her yelp in surprise, but payed it no mind, as he turned swiftly on his heel and called out his command.

"EXPLOSION!"

His sword shifted again, and he slashed in a wide arc, creating forth a burst of energy hurtling towards the Death Stalker.

Blake's eyes widened as she figured out just what he had been planning; he was trying to collapse the cave on top of the Death Stalker! And while that may not be able to kill it exactly, it could severely damage it.

Jaune panted, letting the tip of his sword hit the ground with a thud, "Did we...did we get it?"

Blake resisted the urge to let out an unladylike snort, "By we, do you mean you? Nevertheless, we probably didn't kill it, you probably damaged it quite a bit."

He groaned, and Blake could sympathize with him - they brought down a cave on it for dusts sake, it should've been enough to kill it.

But it wasn't.

They heard a loud screech, and watched as the Deathstalker broke out of it's artificial rocky shell, shaking in what appeared to be anger - they couldn't be sure though, grimm were emotionless. Jaune grimaced, slashing in an arc once more, aiming at the thick shell in hopes of damaging it even further.

It hit it's mark, exploding on contact, creating a large smoke cloud that encompassed the area that surrounded them.

Jaune squinted through the thick, grey haze, "Did that do it?"

"While I would like to think so," she shook her head, "No."

Just as she said the words, the smoke cleared from the area, and the Deathstalker reared it's stinger back, aiming a strike at the two partners that disturbed it's slumber. Jaune rolled to the left, whereas Blake rolled to the right, just barely dodging the lethal strike.

The stinger, now stuck on the ground, was vulnerable to attack, and Jaune took the opportunity quite well. He made do with a quick slash at the unarmored skin between the stinger and the bone plating, but grimaced as the grimm blocked it with it's pincers. At least now he knew what it's weakness was - even if the Deathstalker hadn't meant to show it, much less even had knowledge of showing it at all.

It yanked it's stinger out of the dirt, and used it small legs to run towards Jaune - having become aggressive from the attack he had given. It lashed out wildly with it's pincer - hoping to knock the nuisance off to the side. He narrowly dodged each strike clumsily, making hasty rolls side to side.

Blake tried to slash at it's weak spot where Jaune had failed to do so - but to no avail as the Deathstalker kept moving left and right, making even getting close to the Deathstalker a daunting of a task.

"SLYPHARION!"

He dashed towards it's pincer, hoping - praying - that he would be able to a strike in, just one. He roared as he reared his sword back to his hip, pouring his aura into the strike like he had seen Qrow do many times before. Diagonally, he let it all out through one strike, the energy a blinding white - searing white. It dissipated maybe a few seconds after contact, but he had a general idea on how much it's weak spot could take.

Though, it seemed this wasn't thought out properly, as he felt the air leave his lungs harshly, and he was launched back into the trees.

"Jaune!" Blake cried, dashing towards her partner and distracting the grimm with her dust-infused bullets. She was able to shoot it's eye, and occupied it for a few seconds, if not less.

"Are you okay?" Blake asked worriedly, glancing up and down for any injuries - he may have had aura, but Deathstalkers could hit like a truck...thrice over.

"Yeah...just hurting." he groaned, propping himself up with his sword, whining as he felt Blake assist in getting him back up.

Blake rolled her eyes, "That's not the definition of okay, you know."

Jaune gave a weak grin, "I'm fine, really - besides, we have bigger problems to worry about."

His eyes trailed off to the thrashing mass of black and white, instinctively backing away from the danger that the creature entailed. He could feel Blake glance in the same direction as him, narrowing her eyes and shifting her weapon back into it's katana form.

With a heavy sigh he got back into his normal stance, gathering his aura into his blade for an extra boost in power.

The grimm screeched and hissed in anger, wildly swinging it's pincer at the trees surrounding it. It wasn't a fast process, but it was slowly recovering from Blake's shot to it's eye - adjusting to the change like grimm always did.

Jaune sighed in irritation, shaking ever so slightly - whether it was from fear or anticipation, he couldn't know for sure. Gripping the handle on his sword, he rushed forward to meet the Deathstalker halfway, duly noting Blake followed suit beside him.

But Blake paused, both sets of ears perking up as she forcefully halted and looking around in confusion - the same confusion was mirrored on Jaune's face as he turned to look back at his partner.

"What? What is it?" He asked skeptically.

Blake narrowed her eyes, enhanced perception scanning over the clearing, ignoring the Deathstalker's screeches of anger, as well as the threat it posed.

"'I could've sworn I heard someone else's footsteps…" She muttered to herself.

An explosion, and the Deathstalker's cry tore her away from her musings. Both her's and Jaunes' expressions changed in a flash, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. He took a step forwards; could these be other initiates?

He knew grimm couldn't create anything energy based - they were like animals, in a sense. Except the don't possess an aura, which means they're soulless.

An animal can create a small burst of energy because of the aura it's born with - which is something he learned while watching Ruby and Yangs' dog Zwei. The little mutt was practically able to launch himself forward at an incredible speed, which shouldn't have been possible if he wasn't using aura to proper himself.

Without aura, grimm are about as lacking as the rocks on the ground or the clouds in the sky.

So, in this case, he was really confident it was another student-to-be, and not the grimm itself making the explosion.

He had never been so right.

A girl - a particularly bubbly girl - came skipping into the clearing with a...grenade launcher...thing on her shoulder. She hummed a jaunty tune nonchalantly like nothing had ever happened. Jaune stared in disbelief, Blake's expression was one and the same.

After the girl came a boy, clad in a jade shirt and white pants. He held two small green blades in his hands, both of which looked like they had guns attached to the front.

"So!" the girl with the grenade launcher exclaimed, "Anyone need help smashing some grimm!?"

* * *

 **AN: I am...so sorry.**

 **Yes I know, this chapter took more than, like, 3-4 months and it sucks butt. I may have made a bunch of mistakes in the lore, the grammar, and just the whole thing in general. But I needed to get SOMETHING out for you guys for being so patient. I guess I should explain why I was out for so long. No, it was nothing so bad as a broken bone. It could be in part because of my laziness, it could be because of school. But honestly, it's a mixture of both added in with a loss of inspiration. Don't get me wrong, writing is still kind of fun for me, but it isn't as fun as it used to be. Video games just...came back to me, I guess. I posted this chapter because I didn't want to leave you guys hanging. I didn't want to leave all the people who took the time to actually read this shitty story with nothing. I know none of you can forgive me, I just hope you guys will continue to read. If not, then that's okay, it's your choice. Please feel free to say the various mistakes you find in this chapter, I might make a new version of this if inspiration strikes.**

 **On another note, 395 followers and 300+? favorites! That is insanse!**

 **Love it? Hate it? Leave a review!**

 **Cya.**


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